The Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s (PoJK) assembly has supported Indian Home Minister Amit Shah’s proposal for opening a corridor in PoJK that will allow Hindu pilgrims to visit ancient Hindu temple Sharda Peeth, on the lines of the Kartarpur corridor in Punjab.

 

On March 29, Awami Muslim League led by Sheikh Rashid proposed in the PoJK assembly that a corridor should be built for Kashmiri Pandits and Hindus living in India to visit Maa Sharda’s temple.

 

 

 

The Kashmiri Pandit community has welcomed the PoJK assembly’s decision. Save Sharda Committee Kashmir has been pushing for the opening of the corridor since 2004. Committee’s head Ravindra Pandita said that we have got to know that the assembly of PoJK has passed a resolution about the opening of Sharda Peeth corridor and we welcome it. Civil society needs to be congratulated.

 

Recently, Sharda Mata Temple was inaugurated near the Line of Control in the Teetwal area of the Kupwara district. Home Minister Amit Shah virtually inaugurated the temple and had said that Govt. of India will try for opening of Sharda Peeth on the lines of Kartarpur corridor while adding that Sharda Peeth has been a historical centre of India’s cultural and religious heritage.

 

Sharda Peeth temple has been built on the banks of the Kishanganga river along the LoC, which divides the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is located in Neelam Valley across the LoC in PoJK.

 

 

However, PoJK assembly’s move didn’t go down well with the former Pakistani Ambassador to India, Abdul Basit. Opposing the move, he said " The Sharda Peeth has an importance for Kashmiri Pandits and on the lines of Kartarpur, they want to open the Sharda Peeth corridor. The members of the assembly have passed a resolution opening the corridor. It has come from the Kashmiri leader. The Kartarpur corridor is an International border, this is not an international border. We have always wanted that the LoC should not exist.”

 

He was annoyed at Awami Muslim League’s (AML) Sheikh Rasheed for entertaining the idea for opening a pilgrimage corridor. Basit in a video, condemned the move and accused lawmakers for giving an indirect approval to India’s desire to build a pilgrimage corridor to the Sharda Peeth temple in PoJK.