In the wake of India’s precision military strikes under Operation Sindoor, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday announced the temporary suspension of the Kartarpur Corridor until further notice.
The decision came hours after India launched retaliatory strikes on nine terrorist infrastructure sites across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, following the brutal April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that claimed the lives of 26 civilians, including 25 Indian tourists.
Punjab’s Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner, Dalwinderjit Singh, confirmed that the corridor had been shut for the day, and that the district administration had not received directives for the following days. Nearly 150 Indian pilgrims who arrived at the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Dera Baba Nanak for their pilgrimage to the Sri Darbar Sahib gurdwara in Pakistan’s Narowal district were asked to return.
“Immigration and defense officials told us that the situation is not conducive and advised us to return around 11 a.m.,” one pilgrim told reporters.
The Kartarpur Corridor, inaugurated on November 9, 2019, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is a visa-free passage allowing Indian citizens and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) to visit the historic gurdwara, where Guru Nanak Dev, the first Sikh Guru, spent his final years.
In addition to the corridor’s suspension, authorities diverted two international flights bound for Amritsar to Delhi. Educational institutions along Punjab’s border with Pakistan have also been shut as a precautionary measure. Schools and colleges in Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts will remain closed for three days, while in Fazilka district, the closure will continue until further notice.
The government’s response, Operation Sindoor, was launched earlier on Wednesday morning. It involved coordinated strikes on key terror infrastructure believed to be linked to the perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack. Army sources described the operation as a high-precision offensive aimed at eliminating high-value terrorist targets across the border.