LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz announced on Friday that a special dewatering operation was carried out at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur after the shrine was completely inundated with floodwater.
She said the effort was undertaken as a gesture of respect for the Sikh community on both sides of the border. The operation has now been completed and the gurdwara restored to a dry and safe condition.
The historic shrine was badly affected after rising waters of the Ravi River entered the complex. Reports from the site showed several feet of water inside the premises, submerging four steps of the main staircase and leaving the mazaar and samadh on the ground floor underwater.
Sources said two to three feet of stagnant water had collected inside the gurdwara, raising concerns about possible damage. However, the sacred Saroop of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and the sevadars* (volunteers) remained safe on the first floor.
Flooding also impacted nearby areas, with surrounding villages submerged and the Kartarpur–Narowal road breached, cutting off local transport. In Wazirabad, a resident said the boundary wall of his ancestral home had been destroyed.
Kartarpur Corridor
The gurdwara remains inaccessible to Sikh pilgrims as the Kartarpur Corridor in Narowal has been closed since May 2025 amid heightened tensions between Pakistan and India. Authorities suspended pilgrim entry citing security concerns, while the Zero Line Gate on the Indian side was also shut.
The indefinite closure, which began on May 8, 2025, dealt a blow to Sikh devotees who had relied on the corridor to visit the shrine where Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, spent the final years of his life.
Earlier, the Sikh community had condemned India’s release of water at Kartarpur, describing it as “water aggression.” Leader of Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar, Kulvinder Singh Cheema, said in a video message that India had desecrated the sacred site of Guru Nanak by flooding it, stressing that aggression is not limited to “bombs and bullets.”