Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said he has no objection to Navjot Singh Sidhu accepting the invite.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today said that he could not accept Pakistan's invite to the Kartarpur corridor foundation stone-laying ceremony in good conscience when terrorists from across the border continue to target civilians and security personnel in his state.
"While I welcome the Kartarpur initiative, I cannot -- as the chief minister of Punjab -- shift my vision completely to that while terrorists come here and kill our people. We have neutralised 19 terror modules in the past few months, killed 81 terrorists too. I am grateful to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for the Kartarpur corridor, but his army has no business doing this here," he told NDTV in an interview.
The Chief Minister had rejected the invite days after three people and at least 10 others were injured in a grenade attack on a religious congregation near Amritsar early last week. The Kartarpur corridor aims to link the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan with the Dera Baba Nanak in India's Gurdaspur district, an age-old demand of Sikh pilgrims.
Mr Singh, however, claimed to have no objection to Navjot Singh Sidhu -- a minister in his cabinet -- accepting the invite to attend the ceremony. "Sidhu is not sending contradictory signals, he is a friend of Imran Khan," he said.
While the Chief Minister admitted that the decision to lay the Kartarpur corridor was a "good gesture" that could lead to better ties between the two nations, he said trusting the Pakistan government would be impossible until its army is brought to heel. "I would like see the Wagah border open for trade, I would like peace too, but this is ridiculous. Now, Pakistan-sponsored terrorists are moving into Punjab from Kashmir. They are trying to bring Kashmir terrorists and Punjab terrorists together. It is not Imran Khan doing it, it is his army. But does Imran Khan run the army, or does the army run Imran Khan?" he asked.
Mr Singh refused to comment on the invitation likely to be extended by Mr Khan to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the upcoming SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit, saying that he cannot speak for somebody else. "We need peace, so negotiations probably need to continue at that level," he said. "But I am concerned about terrorism in my state at a time when we need stability. There has to be some limit to this. Nobody wants war, but Pakistan must understand that India has a strong army. If this thing goes beyond the control of the police, what is the next step? He should understand that these things can escalate. We want peace, we want friendship, but this is going the other way round."
The 16th century Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur on the banks of the river Ravi in Pakistan is important for Sikhs because Guru Nanak Dev, their main spiritual leader, had spent the last 18 years of his life here. A corridor from Dera Baba Nanak to the Indian side of the international border at Gurdaspur's Mann village was approved at a cabinet meeting chaired by PM Modi on November 22. While Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu and Amarinder Singh attended the ground-breaking ceremony in Gurdaspur's Mann village near the border on Monday, Pakistan will launch its phase of the project on Wednesday.