Saka Nankana Sahib centenary: SGPC to seek Centre’s nod for sending 5,000-member Sikh jatha to Pakistan

With the centenary of the massacre of Sikhs at Nankana Sahib, popularly remembered as Saka Nankana Sahib, being marked on a large scale in the birthplace of Sikhism

With the centenary of the massacre of Sikhs at Nankana Sahib, popularly remembered as Saka Nankana Sahib, being marked on a large scale in the birthplace of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) is set to request the Union government to permit it to send a large jatha of at least 5,000 pilgrims from India to Pakistan.

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SGPC honorary chief secretary Harjinder Singh Dhami said, “The Pakistani authorities and the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) have issued statements in the media that their government had offered 10,000 visas to the Indian devotees for participation in the centenary event. Though we have not received any letter in this regard from them yet, we will seek permission for sending 5,000 pilgrims.”

“Planning and preparations for marking the centenary on a large scale are underway. We will make arrangements for the centenary like we did while celebrating the 550th Parkash Gurpurb of Guru Nanak,” PSGPC president Satwant Singh said on phone.

Even as the SGPC has not started the process for the same yet, it has already invited the applications from the devotees for the annual jatha to be sent to the neighbouring country to attend the celebrations of the foundation of the order of Khalsa, also called Baisakhi festival, in April next year. This festival is celebrated at Gurdwara Panja Sahib at Hasan Abdal in Pakistan.

As per the Nehru-Liaquat Pact, a bilateral agreement signed on April 8, 1950 to guarantee the rights of minorities in both countries after the Partition of India, nearly 3000 Sikh pilgrims are allowed to visit the Sikh shrines in Pakistan on four religious occasions in a year.