MEA calls Pakistan's decision to transfer control of Kartarpur Gurdwara as 'arbitrary'

New Delhi/Amritsar/Islamabad: India has strongly condemned Pakistan's action of  transferring the management of Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib away from the Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee (PSGPC) to "project management unit" a non-Sikh body under the Evacuee Trust Property Board.

The unit is headed by one Tariq Khan and has 9 members, none of them are Sikhs.

In a strongly worded statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said, "The unilateral decision by Pakistan runs against the spirit of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor as also the religious sentiments of the Sikh community at large."

Read: Pakistan snatches full control of Kartarpur's Gurdwara Darbar Sahib from nation's top Sikh body

India had already received representation from a large number of members of the Sikh community who have expressed "grave concern" at Pakistan's action. Its for the first time that the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has been scrapped off its management rights of this sacred Gurudwara.

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The MEA said, "Such actions only expose the reality of the Pakistani government and its leadership’s tall claims of preserving and protecting the rights and welfare of the religious minority communities."

India called on Islamabad to reverse its arbitrary decision to deprive the Sikh minority community of it’s right to manage affairs of the Holy Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib.

The founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev ji, spent the last 18 years of his life in the Gurudwara which is just a few kilometres away from the international border with India. 

(With inputs from Ravinder Singh Robin and Anas Mallick )