ISLAMABAD: Over 2,000 Sikh pilgrims entered Pakistan on Tuesday from the Wagah border crossing to attend the annual Vaisakhi harvest festival starting today, Wednesday.
The main ceremony of Vaisakhi, a New Year’s celebration as well as a critical day in the formation of the Sikh religion, will be held at the Gurdawara Panja Sahib shrine in the town of Hasan Abdal outside Islamabad tomorrow, Thursday, in which thousands of Sikhs will perform the cleansing ritual of ashnan, or bathing.
The shrine is one of Sikhism’s holiest sites and it is believed that the handprint of the founder of the religion, Guru Nanak, is imprinted on a boulder there. Vaisakhi is also meant to mark the day when Gobind Singh, the 10th and final prophet, established the discipline of Khalsa, through which the faithful can aspire to the ultimate state of purity.

Sikhs are a small minority in Muslim-majority Pakistan, but many Sikh holy sites ended up in the country after the 1947 partition from India following independence from Britain.

Many Sikhs also see Pakistan as the place where their religion began: the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, was born in 1469 in a small village near the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.
“Whenever we come to Pakistan, the land of our gurus, we feel very happy and relaxed ... this time too, we have come here with a lot of love for the people of Pakistan,” Sardar Arvinder Singh, the leader of a Sikh group that arrived in Pakistan, told media at the Wagah border crossing, adding that he was thankful to the Pakistan government for issuing visas in such large numbers.

Delhi Gurdwara Management Committee chief Sardar Sukhbeer Singh said Pakistan and India shared the “same culture” and Sikhs always “felt comfortable” in Pakistan.

“The arrangements made by the Pakistan government for us are impressive,” he added.
The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi this year issued visas to 2,200 pilgrims out of whom 2,044, including women, crossed into Pakistan via Wagah to attend the festival on Tuesday. After having food at Wagah, the pilgrims left for Hasan Abdal on special buses and trains with escorts from the Railways Police, district police and other law enforcement agencies. They reached the town by 8pm.

“Due to security issues, the pilgrims were not allowed to get off the trains on their way to Hasanabdal,” a spokesperson for Railways told media on Tuesday. “Similarly, they wouldn’t be allowed to get off the trains or other transport whenever they are traveling in Pakistan during their trip.”
Around 400 Railways policemen have been deployed for the security of the pilgrims.
“Special commandos and snipers have also been deployed at each railway station, especially Wagah, Lahore, Hasanabdal and Nankana Sahib,” Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported.