DGP Dinkar Gupta: Remarks were response to Punjab's security concerns

"I only red-flagged the obvious ‘potential’ for misuse by elements notorious for their hostility towards India & their effort to exploit every opportunity, even the most pious one, to disturb peace & communal harmony," DGP Dinkar Gupta

The recent remarks of Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta on Kartarpur Corridor has been in the limelight in no time in Punjab. Gupta had said, “Kartarpur offers a potential that you send somebody in the morning as an ordinary chap and by evening he comes back as trained terrorist."

Intelligence information have intimated terrorist camps near to Kartarpur in Pakistan. There have also been some records of infiltration into the Punjab side towards Dera Baba Nanak, which is the terminal tip 4-km to the revered Kartarpur Sahib shrine in Pakistan. India has accorded its security affairs with Pakistan. ISI agenda that will crop out sleeper cells in Punjab.

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DGP Gupta on Friday also stated the visa-free passage cleared for Sikh pilgrims was “a huge security challenge from a terrorism point of view”. Insisting that there were reasons why the corridor was not opened all these years, he stated that some components based in the neighbouring country were “attempting to woo the pilgrims and making approaches to them”.

Retired religious studies professor Ravinder Singh of Patiala city analysed this critical situation and somehow agreed on DGP's statement, Singh stated that one must not take this into their religious sentiments, but this must be taken into serious deliberation as the national security of citizens of India can be at risk after the recent opening of the corridor.

Professor Singh also added the fact that the corridor is not only inaugurated for Sikhs pilgrims, but people associated with different religions can likewise visit the spot through the Kartarpur Corridor. Hence, DGP Dinkar Gupta has not deliberately targeted the Sikh community, but he has focused the mischief people who have the intention to harm the nation.

"Recent occurrences have demonstrated that Kartarpur Corridor has been established as a meeting point between the inhabitants of India and Pakistan. In December 2019, an Indian pilgrim in her early 20s tried to flee away with a Pakistani man whom she came in touch through Facebook," Singh pointed out. "Manjit Kaur of Harayana state of India attempted to go to Faisalabad city of Punjab province of Pakistan without a visa to meet the man, but security officials did not let her traverse the restricted area," he added. Pakistan Minister of Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed recognised for his imbecile anti-India rhetorics professed a couple of months ago that religious pathway Kartarpur corridor was a brainchild of Pakistan's Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. Moreover, he said that the opening of the corridor would give India unforgettable wounds.

"India will remember eternally the kind of wound inflicted on it by General Bajwa by opening the Kartarpur corridor. By this project, Pakistan has produced a new atmosphere of peace and won itself, love of the Sikh community," Rashid asserted during a press meet in Pakistan.

Another hate monger and Pakistani cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi can be heard on the video which surfaced social media in December, "Pakistan is formed from the word 'Pak' or pious in Islam. The dirty habits of Sikhs will not be allowed here by any passage."

Notably, Rizvi is the founder of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan which is a religious-political organisation established in 2015. "Only Mecca and the Prophet are considered to be holy in our land. They (Sikhs) can visit Amritsar for pilgrimage if they want, but they should not come here in Pakistan," he added.

Aman Arora, MLA Sunam recently stated in Chandigarh that, "There is no question on Pakistan being the centre of terrorism in the world, we must be vigilante.

It is notable that Punjab has encountered a serious trauma of terrorism for decades which made the state witness a major downfall in all perspectives. Whereas the beliefs of individuals are concerned, national security is also an equivalent concern for the country.