Sikh pilgrims to visit Pak on Oct 28, to participate in centenary event
Darpan News Desk IANS, 27 Sep, 2022 11:45 AM
New Delhi, Sep 27 (IANS) A group of 240 Sikh pilgrims will visit Pakistan on October 28 to participate in the 'Saka Panja Sahib' centenary event.
The event will be organized at the Gurdwara Panja Sahib located in Hasan Abdal, some 45 km away from Rawalpindi.
Harmeet Singh Kalka, President of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), on Tuesday said that the pilgrims will reach Pakistan from the Attari-Wagah border checkpoint on October 28 and will return to Amritsar on November 2.
They will also visit other historic Sikh shrines in Pakistan, including Gurdwara Panja Sahib and Nankana Sahib, as well as Lahore.
Of the 240 pilgrims, 40 are being sent by the DSGMC, Kalka added.
Saka Panja Sahib, the heroic event which took place at Hasan Abdal railway station, close to the sacred shrine of Pahja Sahib October 30, 1922, when Sikh masses wanted to provide Langar (community meals) to Sikh prisoners.
But, they were arrested for peaceful protests in Amritsar and were being sent by special trains to distant jails. Around 200 Sikhs stopped a train forcefully carrying Sikh prisoners to offer them food as authorities refused to halt the train at the station.
Some of them attained martyrdom in the incident as they lay on the track to stop the train. They were hailed as martyrs and, until the partition of 1947, a three-day religious fair used to be held in their memory at Pahja Sahib from October 30 to November 1 every year.
Kalka said that all pilgrims should be vaccinated with two doses against Covid-19 and must undergo a test 72 hours before leaving for Pakistan.
A negative RTPCR report is mandatory and a further RAT test will be conducted on arrival at the joint checkpost in Attari-Wagah border.
Accommodation for the visiting devotees will be arranged by the Pakistan government and staff of the Evacuee Trust Properties Board (ETPB) will issue room numbers in all gurdwaras.
The DSGMC will hold a special Covid-19 testing camp for the pilgrims at its office in Rakab Ganj Sahib, the dates of which will be disclosed shortly, Kalka added.
The two-time chief minister of Punjab had fought the assembly elections in the state earlier this year in alliance with the BJP as well as Akali Dal (Sanyukt). His party - Punjab Lok Congress - though had failed to get even a single seat during the assembly elections.
During deliberations, the Chief Minister envisaged opportunities for mutual collaboration in business and solutions. He said that the alliance could provide on-field handholding to Punjab farmers in best practices of crop management.
Balkaur Singh, whose son was shot dead in daylight on May 29 close to his Moosa village in Punjab on May 28, had complained of uneasiness on Thursday night following which he was admitted to a private hospital in Patiala from where he was shifted to the PGIMER here.
Majithia told the media here that this was also necessary because the AAP government had neither made the FIR registered in this case public even after 24 hours, nor taken any action against any BJP leader or middlemen involved.
The matter came to the fore after the victim narrated the ordeal to her parents who rescued her and later approached the Women police station at Gurugram's Sector-51 and registered a case against the accused on Wednesday. The victim told the police that she had met Pooja at a Gurugram mall a month ago. Pooja had offered her a job at a doctor's clinic.
The local people and Bishal's family members claimed that he was found with multiple wounds on Wednesday. It is alleged that Bishal was killed for not agreeing to convert to Christianity in order to marry his tribal girlfriend. Though the police are yet to confirm whether the youth was killed or committed suicide, they have arrested five people in connection with the case.
