Indian Sikhs not to attend Guru Ram Das Ji festival

Around a 100 Indian Sikhs who are expected to come to Pakistan have not been given visas.

LAHORE: Around a hundred Indian Sikhs who were expected to come to Pakistan to participate in the 476th birth anniversary of Guru Ram Das Ji on October 9 have not been given visas, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Syed Faraz Abbas, the deputy administrator for shrines at the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), said that over a hundred Sikhs travelled to Lahore for Guru Ram Das Ji’s birth anniversary last year and they expected the same number to arrive in the city on Monday via the Samjhauta Express, but none came.

“I could not understand why. Then later I was told that they have been refused visas because this festival was not part of the bilateral agreement between the two governments,” Abbas said.

He was referring to the Nehru-Liaqat Pact of 1950, under which India and Pakistan agreed to grant visas to religious pilgrims for four events in each country.

Guru Ram Das Ji’s birth anniversary is not part of the pact, but Indian Sikhs were given visas for it for the last two years.

Abbas said the ETPB had made arrangements for local Sikhs to celebrate the festival.

Guru Ram Das Ji was born at Chuna Mandi in Lahore on September 24, 1534, and went on to become the fourth Nanak on September 1, 1574. Guru Ram Das founded Chak Ramdas or Ramdas Pur, which is now called Amritsar in Indian Punjab. He is also remembered for introducing a new matrimonial system.

He was succeeded by his youngest son Guru Arjan Sahib as the fifth Nanak. He passed away on September 1, 1581.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2010.