Pakistan
Prakash Gurpurab of Guru Nanak Dev: Pakistani administration cancels visas, pilgrims express disappointment
Several pilgrims, who were gearing up to visit Pakistan to attend the Prakash Gurpurab of Guru Nanak Dev, have expressed disappointment after the country's administration cancelled the visas of several of them without proper communication.
A bus carrying a group of Sikh pilgrims was flagged off on Friday for the visit to the neighbouring nation.
“The jatha is going to celebrate the 554th anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev,” a jatha leader told the reporters as quoted by ANI.
“The pilgrims will visit Panja Sahib, Nankana Sahib, Kartarpur Sahib. The visit will be over on December 4 and they will return to India the next day," the jatha leader said.
Another jatha leader told ANI: "Despite several requests, the Pakistani government kept us waiting till the last day and didn’t give a clear number of how many pilgrims would be given visas. The pilgrims have so much devotion and cancelling their visas at the last moment really hurt their religious sentiments."
The pilgrims requested the Pakistani administration to give preference to the applications for religious visas.
“We urge the Pakistan government that at least the religious visas should be granted to the pilgrims who wish to go to Pakistan. Delhi Gurdwara Committee and Shiromani Gurdwara Committee are two bodies working on it. The religious visas should be given preference,” a pilgrims told the news agency.
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