Ex-DGP, gurudwara head make it to Kartarpur list

Two city residents, including former Maharashtra director general of police, Dr PS Pasricha, will be among the country’s first set of pilgrims at the Sikh shrine

Two city residents, including former Maharashtra director general of police, Dr PS Pasricha, will be among the country’s first set of pilgrims at the Sikh shrine in Kartarpur in Pakistan on November 9.

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Ecstatic about the visit, Pasricha displays the registration form at his office. Jasbir Singh Dham, president, Guru Nanak Satsang Sabha Gurudwara, Chunabhatti, who will join him, sits next to him smiling, saying the dream of the Sikh community is set to be fulfilled.

In August, the two visited Nankana Sahib in Pakistan, the birthplace of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, to bring his relics consisting of khadaun or wooden footwear and Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book. In the run-up to the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, which is on November 12, processions of the exhibits were held across the country.

“When I returned from Nankana Sahib, my 92-year-old mother-in-law touched my feet, saying she was touching the feet which had visited Guruji’s birthplace. I really don’t how my mother and mother-in-law, both of whom are from Pakistan, will react when I return from Kartarpur,” said Pasricha.

“When I was the DGP, in order to commemorate 300 years of Guru Granth Sahib in 2008, we had taken out a procession from Nanded, which travelled across 22 states. It was a grand success. We wanted to do something bigger than that for the 550th anniversary of Babaji, which is why the jatras were held. With the community getting access to Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, where Guru Nanak spent last 18 years of his life, the celebrations will end on a positive note,” said Pasricha.

The two are hopeful that the opening of the corridor would turn a new leaf in the relationship between the two countries. After the Partition, Kartarpur, which has the Darbar Sahib Gurudwara established by Nanak, was allotted to Pakistan and Indian pilgrims found it difficult to travel there, although it is just four km from the border. A visit entailed a long circuitous route through Lahore, after completing tedious immigration process and most pilgrims were resigned to seeing the gurudwara using binoculars from Dera Baba Nanak Sahib, a shrine on the Indian side of the
border.

The new Kartapur corridor, which connects the two shrines, will allow pilgrims to travel directly between the sites, with fewer immigration formalities. The first travellers on the corridor will be accompanied by former prime minister Manmohan Singh, members of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex body of gurudwaras in India, and other prominent community members.