ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi said on Sunday it has issued over 3,000 visas to Sikh pilgrims in the country to attend the birthday celebrations of Sikhism founder Baba Guru Nanak.
Pakistan last month renewed its agreement with India regarding the Kartarpur Corridor that gives Sikh pilgrims from the neighboring country visa-free access to the final resting place of Nanak, their religion’s founder.
The visa-free border crossing, from India to Kartarpur in the Narowal district of Pakistan’s Punjab, was inaugurated in November 2019 just ahead of Nanak’s 550th birthday.
The corridor connects the Sikh shrines of Dera Baba Nanak in India to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Nanak’s final resting place, in Kartarpur and is seen as a rare example of cooperation and diplomacy between the two South Asian neighbors.
“The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi has issued over 3000 visas to Sikh pilgrims from India to participate in the birthday celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak Dev Ji to be held in Pakistan from 14-23 November 2024,” the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi wrote on social media platform X.
It said Pakistan’s Charge d’Affaires to India, Saad Ahmad Warraich, extended his heartfelt felicitations to the Sikh pilgrims and wished them a “fulfilling yatra.”
Much of Sikh heritage is located in Pakistan. When Pakistan was carved out of India at the end of British rule in 1947, Kartarpur ended up on the Pakistani side of the border, while most of the region’s Sikhs remained on the other side.
For over seven decades, the Sikh community had lobbied for easier access to their holiest temple.
Pakistan’s initiative to open the corridor earned widespread appreciation from the international community, including the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who had described it as a “Corridor of Hope.”
Pakistan issues over 3,000 visas to Indian Sikh pilgrims to attend religious event
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Pakistan issues over 3,000 visas to Indian Sikh pilgrims to attend religious event
- Islamabad provides visas to Indian pilgrims to attend Sikhism founder Baba Guru Nanak’s birthday celebrations from Nov. 14-23
- A visa-free corridor in Pakistan’s Punjab provides easy access to Indian pilgrims to Nanak’s final resting place in Narowal
Pakistan military says 12 militants killed in counter-terror operations in southwest
- Pakistan military says “Indian-sponsored terrorists” were killed in southwestern Kalat district on Dec. 6
- Development takes place day after military said it gunned down five militants in Balochistan’s Dera Bugti area
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces killed 12 “Indian-sponsored terrorists” in the southwestern Balochistan province, the military’s media wing said on Sunday, vowing to purge “terrorism” from the country.
The security operation was carried out in Balochistan’s Kalat district on Dec. 6, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, said in a statement. It said the militants belonged to Indian proxy “Fitna al Hindustan.”
The military uses this term to describe ethnic Baloch militant groups who demand independence from Pakistan. Islamabad accuses New Delhi of arming and funding these separatist groups, charges India has always denied.
“Weapons, ammunition and explosives were also recovered from the terrorists, who remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities in the area,” the ISPR said.
The military said that it was carrying out sanitization operations in the area to eliminate other “terrorists,” vowing it will continue with its relentless counter-terror campaign to purge militancy.
The development took place a day after the Pakistan military said it had gunned down 14 militants in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan provinces.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by since yet its most backward by almost all social and economic indicators, has suffered from a bloody separatist insurgency for decades.
The most ethnic Baloch militant group that has mounted attacks against law enforcement and civilians in the area is the Balochistan Liberation Army.
These militant outfits accuse the military and federal government of denying the local Baloch population a share in the province’s mineral wealth, charges Islamabad denies.
