No Baisakhi celebrations at Gurdwara Panja Sahib

3,000 Sikhs from India and 2,000 from elsewhere were to participate

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Pakistan government has cancelled Baisakhi celebrations scheduled to begin on April 14 at Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Punjab province, in which 3,000 Sikhs from India and 2,000 from elsewhere were to participate.

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Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) deputy secretary shrines, Imran Gondal said a meeting of the ETPB and the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbadhank Committee (PSGPC) unanimously decided that there would be no Baisakhi celebrations at the shrine in Hassanabdal city this year and the scheduled visits of Sikh pilgrims has been cancelled, reports Dawn news.

The Akal Takht -- the highest religious authority in the Sikh faith -- have already announced that Baisakhi celebrations around the world would be smaller in scale due to the coronavirus epidemic.

GURDWARAS SHUT IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA

Pakistan’s Sikh community has shut down gurdwaras in Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) after the provincial government banned gathering of more than five people for worship in religious places to stop the spread of the coronavirus which has infected nearly 4,000 people and killed 55 in the country.

The Sikh community leaders in the province, where around 500 people have been tested positive, have asked worshippers to pray inside their homes. The step has been taken to prevent spread of the pandemic as some cases of the COVID-19 have been reported in Swat district, a community leader said.