More than 1,000 Sikhs from India arrived at Gurdwara Punja Sahib in Pakistan’s Hassanabdal city as part of the Nagar Kirtan, a religious procession, held to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev. The gurdwara in Punjab province was decorated with colourful lights and pilgrims offered prayers. Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) deputy secretary, shrines, Imran Gondal said that more than 1,100 Sikhs crossed the border through Wagah on October 31 via Ludhiana and Amritsar, the Dawn reported. The Sikh pilgrims visited Gurdwara Janamasthan, Nankana Sahib, Gurdwara Sacha Sodda Farooqabad and other shrines. The pilgrimage will conclude at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, where a gold palanquin, Palki Sahib, will be installed. “Around 1,300 visas issued for the Nagar Kirtan are over and above the contingent covered under the Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines, 1974, between Pakistan and India,” Gondal was quoted as saying. Gondal said the board along with the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the district administration, has made accommodation arrangements for the pilgrims. Attock district police officer Shahzad Nadeem Bukhari said that multi-layered security plans are in place. Speaking to the media, a pilgrim hailed the initiative to open the Kartarpur Corridor to facilitate the Sikh community, and lauded Prime Minister Imran Khan for laying the foundation stone for Baba Guru Nanak University in Nankana Sahib and issuing a commemorative coin on the occasion. The Kartarpur Corridor, to be opened on November 9, will connect the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Indian Punjab with Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur, 4 km from the border, in Narowal district of Pakistan Punjab. Meanwhile, a 178-member delegation has arrived in Pakistan from the UK to take part in the celebrations at Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara on November 12. The gurdwara, originally known as Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, is the final resting place of Guru Nanak Dev, who spent 18 years there.
