Pakistan team to visit India on March 14 to discuss Kartarpur draft agreement

Pakistan on Tuesday said it will send a delegation to India on March 14 to discuss a draft agreement for setting up a corridor to facilitate visa-free visit of Sikh pilgrims to the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, a positive development that could help ease tensions between the two sides. Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal, who is also the Director General South Asia & SAARC, invited India's acting High Commissioner Gaurav Ahluwalia at the ministry of foreign affairs to convey the decision, according to a statement. In January, the two countries floated proposals to host talks in order to give the final shape to the agreement. Pakistan has committed to open the corridor in November on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.

"The Pakistan delegation will visit New Delhi on 14 March 2019, followed by the return visit of the Indian delegation to Islamabad on 28 March 2019, to discuss the draft Agreement on Kartarpur Corridor," the statement said.

Both sides are yet to finalise the modalities of travel of the Indian pilgrims to the Gurudwara across the international border without visa. The corridor will facilitate the visa-free travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur.

Faisal informed the Indian diplomat that Pakistan's High Commissioner to India, Sohail Mahmood, will be returning to New Delhi after the completion of consultations in Islamabad.

He also conveyed that Pakistan was committed to continue weekly contact at the Military Operations Directorates level.

The positive development came amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following a suicide attack by Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad that killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14.

Pakistan on Tuesday detained 44 members of the banned militant outfits, including JeM chief Masood Azhar's son Hammad Azhar and brother Mufti Abdur Rauf, in a move seen as a step toward deescalating tensions.

India and Pakistan agreed to open up a special border crossing linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur - the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev - to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district.

Kartarpur Sahib is located in Pakistan's Narowal district across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, the first Gurdwara, was established by Guru Nanak Dev in 1522, where he is said to have died.

Earlier, Pakistan Prime Minister Pakistan said the Mecca and Medina for the Sikhs and the country is opening up those sites for the minority community.