NEW DELHI: Despite the escalation in cross border shelling and the continuing frost in bilateral relations, the government on Wednesday announced that the first India Pakistan meeting to discuss and finalize the modalities for Kartarpur Corridor would be held on the Indian side of the Attari-Wagah border checkpost on March 14.
According to a MEA release, this is in “keeping with Government's decision to operationalise the Kartarpur Corridor on the occasion of the 550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev ji and meet the long-pending public demand to have easy and smooth access to the holy Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib.” India has also proposed that a technical level discussion on the alignment of the corridor be held on the same day on the sidelines of this meeting, the release said.
However, MEA sources were quick to clarify that this was a stand alone meeting and was in no way a precursor to any formal dialogue, which would only be considered once Pakistan took “credible, tangible and verifiable” action against terrorists and their sponsors on their soil.
Sources said that there were a lot of issues to be sorted out if the corridor was to be made operational before the anniversary celebrations next year, including security and logistics, and this had led to the decision to hold the talks while delinking them from any other process or dialogue.