Punjab Police Chief Dinkar Gupta on Friday raised questions over Pakistan’s intentions behind opening the Kartarpur Corridor and said that Kartarpur offers an opportunity for a person to come back as a "trained terrorist" in one day.
"Kartarpur offers a potential that you send somebody in the morning as an ordinary chap and by evening he comes back as a trained terrorist actually. You are there for six hours, you can be taken to a firing range, you can be taught to make an IED," said Gupta, while speaking at The Indian Express Idea Exchange in Panchkula.
Gupta said that there were reasons for why the Corridor was not kept open all these years. Some elements based in the neighbouring country were "trying to woo the pilgrims and making overtures to them," he said.
On Nov. 9 last year, three days ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, the corridor was opened that connects Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district with the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Kartarpur.
"It is a huge concern…that is why it was not opened for all these years. I was in the Intelligence Bureau for eight years…I used to handle it over there," the DGP said. "The feeling was that it (the Corridor) will be a huge security challenge. But after that as the community wanted it, the diaspora wanted it, it was decided why cannot this dream be realised. So all those security concerns were put on the backburner. And we also gave our go-ahead."
He said that Pakistan-based elements and agencies have in the past tried to find potential people for radicalisation. Considering the number of footfalls there is "huge potential" (people for radicalisation), so it is a security challenge, Gupta said.