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3000 Indian Sikhs for Baisakhi in Pak

          Lahore: Thousands of Sikhs from across the world, including around 3000 from India alone, will congregate in Pakistan to celebrate the Baisakhi festival in April. The Indian and Pakistani governments had agreed that 3000 Indian Sikhs would get visas to visit Pakistan during Baisakhi, April 6 to 15, the paper quoted an official of the Evacuee Property Trust Board as saying here Wednesday. The Indian Sikh pilgrims would arrive by two special trains at Wagah railway station on April 6, and thereafter will make trips to the Nankana Sahib Gurdawara, Sacha Sauda Sahib, Dera Sahib and Gurdawara Roori Sahib in Aimenabad. The main Baisakhi function will be at Punja Sahib, Hasan Abdal, on April 14, the report said, adding that it will involve pilgrims performing religious rituals, including Akhand Paat Sahib, Phog, Ardas, Hukam Nama and others. They are to return to India on April 15. Apart from India, thousands of Sikh pilgrims were expected from the UK, US, Germany, Canada and France. Sikhs from all over Pakistan were to participate as well, most of them from Nankana Sahib in the Punjab and parts of Sindh and the North-West Frontier Province, the report stated. It is said that Baisakhi began as a meeting of Sikhs from all over India called by Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th guru of the Sikhs, at Anandpur Sahib in the Indian Punjab on April 13, 1699, in which 25,000 Sikhs participated. In that meeting, the guru announced the completion of the Sikh religion and that they would not have another guru, rather Guru Granth Sahib would be the living guru for them. It was also the day they were told to carry five objects (kakas): the Kase, Kara, Kirpan, Kanga and Kacha.
- March 18, 2004