ISLAMABAD: Sikh pilgrims from India began arriving in Pakistan this week via the Wagah border crossing to participate in celebrations of the Baisakhi spring festival which marks the beginning of the Sikh New Year and symbolizes spiritual rejuvenation.
Pakistan has issued more than 6,500 visas to Indian Sikh pilgrims for the Baisakhi festival from April 10-19, with celebrations centered around Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hasan Abdal, some 45 kilometers northwest of Islamabad. Pilgrims will also visit Gurdwara Nankana Sahib and Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib.
Sikhs are a small minority based in the Punjab region that is divided between Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India, but several Sikh holy sites ended up being in Pakistan after the partition of the Indian Subcontinent in 1947. Many Sikhs see Pakistan as the place where their religion began. Its founder, Guru Nanak, was born in 1469 in a small village in Nankana Sahib near the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.
Sikh pilgrims gesture from inside a bus before leaving for Pakistan during 'Baisakhi,' a spring harvest festival, in Amritsar, India, on April 10, 2025. (AFP)
“ETPB has ensured comprehensive arrangements for accommodation, medical facilities, transport, and other necessary services for the Sikh pilgrims,” said Farid Iqbal, Secretary Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), a key government department which administers evacuee properties, including educational, charitable or religious trusts left behind by Hindus and Sikhs who migrated to India after partition in 1947.
“Gurdwara Janam Asthan (Nankana Sahib), Gurdwara Panja Sahib, Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, and other holy sites have been beautifully decorated to enrich the spiritual experience of the pilgrims.”
The central ceremony of the Baisakhi Festival will be held on April 14 at Gurdwara Janam Asthan, Nankana Sahib.
Sikh pilgrims gesture from inside a bus before leaving for Pakistan during 'Baisakhi' a spring harvest festival, in Amritsar, India, on April 10, 2025. (AFP)
The shrine in Hasan Abdal 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.
Baisakhi is also meant to mark the day when Gobind Singh, the 10th and final guru of Sikhism, established the discipline of Khalsa, through which the faithful can aspire to the ultimate state of purity.
Every year, hundreds of pilgrims from India visit Pakistan to observe various religious festivals under the framework of the Pakistan-India Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines of 1974.
