LAHORE: Baba Guru Nanak Dev Jee’s 553rd birthday celebrations began on Tuesday at Gurdwara Janam Asthan in Nankana Sahib. The rite will end after the Nagar Kirtan procession and the last ritual of the night.
Thousands of Sikhs from India and other countries came to Pakistan to participate in birthday celebrations at Janumasthan Nankana Sahib. Despite tensions with India, the Evacuee Trust Board (ETPB) has done its best for Sikh Yatrees visiting Pakistan.
Pakistan has allowed the Sikh network to celebrate the birthday of its guru Baba Nanak Dev Jee in the Kartarpur corridor, despite India’s defiant position.
This is just another example of Islamabad’s efforts to announce peace in the region. The Sikhs were able to call at their holy place this vital rite thanks to the efforts of Islamabad. The Kartarpur corridor is a visa-free passage that allows Indian Sikhs to stop at the temple just four kilometers from the interior of Pakistan where Baba Guru Nanak died in 1539.
The hall originally opened in 2019 to celebrate Baba Nanak’s 550th birthday, but later closed due to the coronavirus outbreak. The hall connects Punjab in Pakistan and Punjab in India, which was split between the two nations after independence from Britain in 1947.
Punjab is the cradle of Sikhism. Although many of their holy sites are still located in devout Pakistan, Sikhs make up only a very small percentage. Since their independence, Pakistan and India have fought 3 large-scale wars over Kashmir, which is divided between the two nations and yet claimed in its entirety.
The hall was described by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as the “hall of hope” on his stopover in Kartarpur Sahib in February 2020. The Kartarpur salon was reopened on 29 June 2020 as part of Covid-19 protocols following its transitory pandemic closure on 16 March 2020.