Plan for Sharada Peeth Corridor gains backing in PoK, causing frustration for former Pakistani diplomat Basit.

Abdul Basit, the former Pakistan High Commissioner to India, has expressed his opposition to plans to open a corridor linking Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) with the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir. Specifically, Basit was against the idea of opening a pilgrimage corridor to the Sharada Peeth Temple in PoK. This is a change in stance for Basit, who had previously supported initiatives to allow Hindus from India to visit the temple after the construction of an access road. The resolution to build a corridor was passed by the rubber-stamp legislative assembly of PoK, which is known for its close ties to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party led by Imran Khan. Basit urged the Pakistani government to educate Kashmiris living under illegal occupation and members of the legislative assembly on their own history. The Sharada Peeth Temple is an ancient Hindu temple located in the Neelum Valley of Muzaffarabad in PoK, and the proposal for a Hindu pilgrimage corridor to the temple is similar to the Kartarpur corridor, which was opened in 2019 to allow Indian Sikh pilgrims to visit the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan.