“PLEASANT MEMORIES”
Nasir Mushtaq, a senior official at Pakistan’s religious affairs ministry, told AFP around 2,000 pilgrims crossed into Pakistan on Tuesday, the eve of Guru Nanak’s birthday.
There was no immediate confirmation from Indian authorities.
“We are welcoming all the Sikh pilgrims arriving from India with greater respect, honour and hospitality than ever before,” Mushtaq said.
“We want to leave a lasting impression of love, peace and respect with our Sikh guests so they return to India and elsewhere with pleasant memories of Pakistan.”
The pilgrims will gather on Wednesday at Nankana Sahib, Guru Nanak’s birthplace west of Lahore, and later visit other sacred sites in Pakistan, including Kartarpur, where the guru is buried.
Pakistan’s High Commission had said last week its decision was consistent with efforts to promote “inter-religious and inter-cultural harmony and understanding”.
The Kartarpur Corridor, a visa-free route that opened in 2019 allowing Indian Sikhs to visit the temple without crossing the main border, remains closed since the conflict.
Four days of clashes broke out in May after New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing a deadly attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, claims Pakistan denied.
Sikhism is a monotheistic religion born in the 15th century in Punjab, a region spanning parts of what is now India and Pakistan.
The frontier between the two countries was a colonial creation drawn at the violent end of British rule in 1947, which sliced the subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
While most Sikhs migrated to India during partition, some of their most revered places of worship ended up in Pakistan, including the shrines in Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indian-sikh-pilgrims-enter-pakistan-first-major-crossing-may-conflict-5444341
