CHANDIGARH: The demand for building a corridor to Kartarpur Sahib was first raised 24 years ago.
Sixty-seven-year-old Bhabishan Singh Goraya from Awawalpur village in Dera Baba Nanak, who formed Sangat Langhan Kartarpur, says, “I first visited Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan in 2015. Earlier, I had gone with a Sikh jatha (group of devotees) to pilgrimage in Pakistan in 1994 and told a minister concerned and officials about the shrine which was in a shambles. Once I returned… I made it into a movement.”
“I have been holding ardaas (prayer) at this point (from where the gurdwara can be seen) each month with a hope that the wish of lakhs of Sikhs will be fulfilled someday... now it has happened,” he says. Goraya claimed he was even harassed by intelligence officials for crusading for this cause. His elder brother Raghbir Singh is also fighting for the cause and has his own association, Kartarpur Corridor Corporation.
Akali leader Kuldeep Singh Wadala, who died recently, had led more than 150 delegations of devotees to perform ardaas at Dera Baba Nanak border for the opening of the corridor. Now his son and Nakodar MLA Gurpartap Singh Wadala had taken up the cause. “My father would be happy if he were alive
today,” he says.