LAHORE: Thousands of Sikh pilgrims from across the globe have gathered in Punjab to celebrate the 552nd birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak, the founder of their religion.
The 10-day celebration began on Wednesday in Nankana Sahib district — the birthplace of Baba Guru Nanak — located around 80 kilometres (49 miles) from Lahore.
The celebrations began with Akhand Path — a reading of 1,430 pages of Granth Sahib, the holy book of Sikhism.
Some 3,000 Sikh pilgrims from India entered Pakistan through the Wagha border crossing to take part in the celebrations.
To celebrate Prakash Purab of the first Sikh Guru “Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji”, the first batch of pilgrims left for Pakistan from Teja Singh Samundri Hall, the head office of Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee.#KartarpurCorridor #gurpurab #amritsar #Sikhs #Punjab pic.twitter.com/0IZFm1vCPk
— Akashdeep Thind (@thind_akashdeep) November 17, 2021
Despite heightened tensions, longtime rival nations have facilitated the Sikh community on the occasion of Nanak’s birth anniversary, one of the main festivals of Sikhism.
Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued 3,000 visas to pilgrims, enabling them to attend the celebrations, whereas New Delhi, for its part, reopened the visa-free Kartarpur crossing, which connects the two Punjabs.
An official source told AFP Tuesday the corridor had never been closed on the Pakistan side, and that they were waiting for confirmation from Indian authorities that the pilgrims would be allowed to cross.
The pilgrims will also visit their holy sites in several parts of Punjab, including Kartarpur Sahib, where Nanak settled and died in 1539.
Notwithstanding a chill in bilateral ties over disputed Kashmir, Islamabad and New Delhi after tough negotiations had signed a landmark agreement in November 2019 to open the corridor to allow Sikh pilgrims from India to visit the holy shrine in Pakistan.
The distance between Kartarpur and the town of Gurdaspur in India is merely 3 kilometres (2 miles). But the closure of this crossing meant that Sikh pilgrims from India had to travel, hundreds of kilometres to cross the border at Wagah, near Amritsar and then travel to Lahore, to reach Kartarpur.
​​​​​​​Kartarpur crossing was shut last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sikh special association with Pakistan
The number of Sikhs in Pakistan is estimated between 30,000-40,000, out of some 200 million population of this country.
Pakistan is also home to some of the most important pilgrimage sites for Sikhs. They include the birthplace of Nanak, who was born in 1469, Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara and Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hasan Abdal, where the handprint of Nanak is believed to be imprinted on a boulder.
These sites are visited by thousands of Sikhs from India, Europe and Canada every year.
Punjabi is the common language of the province of Punjab, partitioned between Pakistan and India.
— With additional input from AFP
