Thursday, March 28, 2024
ADVT 
International

Over 2,200 Sikhs From India Arrive In Pakistan To Celebrate Baisakhi

Darpan News Desk IANS, 12 Apr, 2019 08:48 PM

    Over 2,200 Sikh pilgrims from India arrived here on Friday to celebrate Baisakhi festival at Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hasan Abdal city of Pakistan’s Punjab province.


    The pilgrims, who arrived at Wagah railway station by two special trains, were received by Secretary of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Tariq Khan and Pakistan Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Sardar Tara Singh.


    The ETPB looks after the holy places of the minority community in the country.


    Gurdwara Panja Sahib has a handprint of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev, on a boulder of the shrine.


    “A total 2,206 Sikh pilgrims have arrived here from India on two special trains. After immigration they left for Gurdwara Punja Sahib in Hasan Abdal in Attock district, about 40 km from Rawalpindi,” ETPB spokesman Amir Hashmi told.


    Baisakhi is celebrated to mark the beginning of a new harvest season. Under the framework of the Pakistan-India Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines of 1974. Every year, a large number of Sikh pilgrims from India visit Pakistan to observe various religious festivals and occasions.


    He said special security arrangements have been made for them and elite force and rangers are deployed along with them for their security.


    Hasmi said the pilgrims will also visit other gurdwaras in Punjab province, including Gurdwara Janamasthan Nankana Sahib, during their 10-day stay here.


    They will leave for India on April 21, he added.


    Talking to reporters, leader of the Indian delegation Sardar Varmindar Singh Khalsa expressed the hope that the government will issue visas to a large number of Indian Sikh pilgrims on the occasion of 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.


    “We are anxiously awaiting that occasion and hope the government will issue maximum number of visas to the pilgrims,” he said, stressing that people-to-people contact between the two countries would help in improving ties between the neighbours.


    India and Pakistan have announced opening the Kartarpur Corridor on the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

    MORE International ARTICLES

    NY Mural Of Astronaut, Gandhi Talks About Future

    Sporting a Mahatma Gandhi patch on his shoulder, an astronaut floats in space on the mural painted on the side wall of the Indian Mission to the UN that was inaugurated on Tuesday.    

    NY Mural Of Astronaut, Gandhi Talks About Future

    Husband Gurpreet Singh On Trial For Indian-Origin Woman Sarbjit Kaur's Murder In UK

    Gurpreet Singh, 43, is accused of killing his second wife 38-year-old Sarbjit Kaur with an "unknown accomplice" in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands region of England, in February last year.

    Husband Gurpreet Singh On Trial For Indian-Origin Woman Sarbjit Kaur's Murder In UK

    Dubai Duty Free Jackpot: Indo-Canadian Man Mukhtar M Wins $1 Million (Rs 6.9 crore) Prize

    Dubai Duty Free Jackpot: Indo-Canadian Man Mukhtar M Wins $1 Million (Rs 6.9 crore) Prize
    "Winning the raffle was the first shock. Knowing that Michael had also won it in another series was the second shock," said Mukhtar M.    

    Dubai Duty Free Jackpot: Indo-Canadian Man Mukhtar M Wins $1 Million (Rs 6.9 crore) Prize

    Historic Paintings Of Sikhs By Western Artists To Be Shown

    "Sikhs: An Occidental Romance" will present 80 museum archival replicas of paintings by western artists from the 19th and 20th centuries. It is organised by non-profit Hubris Foundation.

    Historic Paintings Of Sikhs By Western Artists To Be Shown

    Indian American Prosecutor Diane Gujarati Re-Nominated By Trump For New York Federal Judge Seat

    US President Donald Trump has re-nominated an Indian American prosecutor Diane Gujarati to be a federal judge.

    Indian American Prosecutor Diane Gujarati Re-Nominated By Trump For New York Federal Judge Seat

    50-Year-Old Temple Priest Found Murdered At Kartarpur In Jalandhar

    50-Year-Old Temple Priest Found Murdered At Kartarpur In Jalandhar
    Balbir Kumar, a 50-year-old priest working at the Baba Balaknath temple was murdered in the wee hours of Monday at Kartarpur near here.   

    50-Year-Old Temple Priest Found Murdered At Kartarpur In Jalandhar