Pakistan welcomed more than 2,500 Indian Sikh pilgrims arriving in Pakistan through the Wagah border on Wednesday to celebrate Baba Guru Nanak’s 552nd birthday.
Besides, over two dozen Sikh Yatrees used the visa-free Kartarpur Corridor to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib on Wednesday, after the Indian government reopened the corridor after more than two and a half years. The Indian government had closed the passage in March 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic. Pakistan had also closed the corridor in March 2020 but reopened it three months later.
PSGPC chief Sardar Ameer Singh welcomed the Indian government’s decision to reopen the Kartarpur Corridor that links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, the final resting place of Guru Nanak, and Dera Baba Nanak in Indian Punjab’s Gurdaspur district.
“We welcome the Indian government’s decision, which should have been taken long ago. The decision will provide Sikhs from Indian Punjab the opportunity to visit Kartarpur where Baba Nanak spent the last 18 years of his life,” Singh said, adding it was the basic right of the Sikhs to visit their holy places in Pakistan.
Kartarpur Project Management Unit chief executive officer, Muhammad Latif, told media that around 28 Indian Sikh Yatrees visited the gurdwara on Wednesday and around 100 pilgrims are expected to visit on Thursday.
“The Indian Punjab chief minister along with his delegation is also scheduled to visit Darbar Sahib on Thursday (today),” Mr Latif said, who greeted the pilgrims at Kartarpur along with Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (PSGPC) president Sardar Ameer Singh on Wednesday. The visiting pilgrims performed their religious rites at the gurdwara..
“Before the Indian government closed its side of the corridor (March 2020), the per day number of visitors from the Indian side swelled to a maximum 2,000,” he added.
Separately, Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) chairman Dr Aamer Ahmed, Additional Secretary Rana Shahid, Deputy Secretary Imran Gondal and office-bearers of the Sikh committee received the Indian pilgrims who crossed Wagah border by foot.