india

Updated: Nov 07, 2019 03:20 IST

Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday responded to the video of a song Pakistan released two days back to welcome Sikh pilgrims to Kartarpur that featured slain Khalistani separatists including the infamous Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and said it only proved his theory that the country has a hidden agenda involving the Kartarpur corridor.

Pakistan’s information minister Firdous Ashiq Awan released the video five days before the inauguration of the corridor that will provide Indian pilgrims visa-free access to the gurdwara at Kartarpur where Sikhism’s founder Guru Nanak spent his final years.

The video released by Pakistan features pictures of Bhindranwale, Shabeg Singh, and Amrik Singh Khalsa, who were killed when the army stormed Amritsar’s Golden Temple to take out militants holed up there in 1984.

“All this is what I have been warning about since day one... Pakistan has a hidden agenda here. Pakistan, on one side, is showing love, but on the other... [is trying] to foment trouble. We have to be very careful of its intentions,” Singh said in response to the video.

The insurgency in Punjab for Khalistan peaked in the 1980s before it fizzled out in the 1990s.

The video shows clips of Sikh pilgrims visiting their places of worship across Pakistan, including Gurdwara Janam Asthan built at the place where Guru Nanak was born in Pakistani Punjab’s Nankana Sahib.

Speaking at the launch of the video in Islamabad, Awan had said the Kartarpur Corridor’s opening reflected Pakistan PM ’s vision for religious freedom for all minorities in Pakistan.

Responding to the statement, Punjab BJP chief and Rajya Sabha member Shwait Malik on Wednesday said, “Pakistan is indulging in mischievous acts...religious harmony should be upheld in this matter.”

Meanwhile, former prime minister Manmohan Singh hoped the “Kartarpur model” might help in resolving future conflicts, as he and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu addressed a special session of the Punjab Assembly to commemorate the 550th birth anniversary of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu too said a new world of peace and sustainable development could be founded if teachings of the Sikh Guru were integrated in daily lives.