India questions Pakistan’s ‘deficiencies’ as 5 Kartarpur Sahib domes collapse due to winds

NAYANIMA BASU 

The fibreglass domes were restored overnight, but Indian officials say Pakistan must appreciate the sentiments of the Sikh community about the Gurudwara.

India has questioned Pakistan on the ‘deficiencies’ in building Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib, as five domes of the structure collapsed Saturday owing to strong winds.

The domes, which sources in the Pakistan government said were decorative ones made of fibreglass, were restored by a team of experts throughout Saturday night. Pakistan’s Science and Technology Minister Fawad Hussain Chaudhry also tweeted about it.

However, Indian government sources doubted the quick restoration work, saying they hoped the repair work would be long-lasting.

A senior Indian government official told ThePrint that the question is about the Sikh community’s “strong sense of faith and devotion to the holy site”, which “must be fully understood and appreciated”.

“India has taken up the issue of the collapse of domes of the holy Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib with Pakistan. It has been highlighted that the damage to the structures in the holy Gurudwara has caused great consternation to the members of the Sikh community,” the official said.

The official said India has urged Pakistan that in “deference to the sentiments of the Sikh community, the deficiencies which led to the damage to the newly constructed structures be urgently rectified and remedied”.

The restored domes are also made of fibreglass, and there are plans to replace them with concrete domes in phase-II of the restoration work, a Pakistani source added.

Shut due to Covid-19

Pilgrimage to the Gurudwara through the Kartarpur Corridor, which was inaugurated with much fanfare in November last year, got suspended on 15 March due to the Covid-19 pandemic, at the same time as the movement of people at the Attari-Wagah border.

The Kartarpur Corridor links Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Gurdaspur to the Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan, where the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak, spent the final years of his life.

The corridor was opened to the public on 9 November last year in a historic people-to-people initiative between the two countries, amid the downgrading of diplomatic ties by Islamabad in the light of India scrapping Article 370, which promised special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Ahead of the ceremony, Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib, which was once in a dilapidated condition, was developed into a sprawling four-acre compound covered with white marble.