Srinagar, Nov 25: National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah on Sunday expressed happiness over the opening of Kartarpur corridor between India and Pakistan hoping that the Kartarpur spirit replicates itself in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Dr Farooq, who represents the Srinagar parliamentary constituency, said that the initiative will help Sikh community to realize their long-cherished wish of paying obeisance at one of their holiest places located across the border.
“The invitation from Pakistan to Indian leaders and legislators on the opening ceremony of Kartarpur corridor will bequeath both India and Pakistan a chance to further the cause of brotherhood and amity. The initiative will help the people from across the border to get wind of cultural similarities between the two nations,” Farooq said in a statement here.
He said that the state of Jammu and Kashmir beseeches for such initiatives as opening of borders, and greater people-to-people contact across the border.
“We in Jammu and Kashmir suffer immensely due to the animosity between India and Pakistan. The need is for replicating such initiatives as opening of Kartarpur corridor in our state,” he said.
He said that NC has for the past 70 years been vouching for affable indo-Pak relations. “We in National Conference have persistently maintained that Indo-Pak bonhomie will usher in a new era of peace and prosperity in our peace-craving state. We have had four wars since 1947. And we weren’t able to achieve anything except destruction. I have time and again said that constituency of peace-loving people in the two nations far exceeds those who want war. Peace-loving people across the border should impress upon their respective governments to bridge the divide and rekindle the process of interaction between the two countries which was initiated by late Vajpayee-ji and then Pakistan President Parvez Musharraf and later by PM Manmohan Singh and his counterpart in Pakistan,” he said.
Welcoming the brigade commander level meeting between India and Pakistan at a border crossing in Poonch sector, he said such initiatives will bump up the confidence building measures and help the populace across the LoC to live in peace.
“National Conference has been a strong votary of 2003 ceasefire agreement. The meeting ended with both sides assuring to adhere to norms of 2003 ceasefire. I wish this step towards rapprochement acts as a precursor to more such friendly gestures,” he said.
