ISLAMABAD: India’s home ministry announced on Sunday it was suspending travel by Indian pilgrims to a Sikh temple in Pakistan using the Kartarpur Corridor, after the number of coronavirus infections rose to 107 in India.
The corridor between the neighbors allows visa-free access from India to the Pakistani town of Kartarpur, home to a temple marking the site where the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, died.
“In wake of COVID19 India outbreak, as a precautionary measure to contain and control spread of the disease, the travel and registration for Sri Kartarpur Sahib is temporarily suspended from 00:00 hours on March 16, 2020, till further orders,” a home ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
Pakistan’s National Security Committee had said on Friday that it was closing the Kartarpur crossing for Pakistanis though Indian pilgrims would be allowed to continue using it.
India, a country of 1.3 billion people, has so far fared better than elsewhere in Asia, Europe, and North America, with only two deaths because of the virus.
Pakistan has seen no deaths from the virus but confirmed cases jumped to 52 on Sunday as 13 people who had returned from pilgrimage in Iran, one of the world’s worst-hit countries, tested positive, a spokesman for the provincial Sindh government Murtaza Wahab said.