New Delhi: India on Friday summoned the Charge d'Affaires (CDA) of the Pakistan High Commission to lodge a strong protest over Islamabad's "unilateral" decision to transfer the management of the Kartarpur Sahib gurudwara from a Sikh body to a separate trust.
MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said Aftab Hassan Khan, the Pakistani CDA, was categorically told that the decision by Pakistan is 'highly condemnable'. Pakistan has decided to transfer the management of the gurudwara from Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee to the Evacuee Trust Property Board, a non-Sikh body.
India has received representations from the Sikh community, expressing "grave concern" over the decision by Pakistan targeting the rights of the minority Sikh community in that country, he said.
"Pakistan is called upon to reverse its arbitrary decision to deprive the Sikh minority community it's right to manage affairs of the Holy Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib," said Srivastava.
In the midst of heightened tension between the two countries, the corridor linking Dera Baba Sahib in Gurdaspur in India with Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan was thrown open in November, in a historic people-to-people initiative.
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