28 June 2017•Update: 28 June 2017
By Shuriah Niazi and Aamir Latif
NEW DELHI, India / KARACHI, Pakistan
India on Wednesday returned 300 Sikh pilgrims who wanted to travel to Pakistan to mark the death anniversary of a 19th century king Ranjit Singh.
The pilgrims who arrived at the Atari Shyam Singh Railway Station in Amritsar to leave for Lahore, were stopped by the Indian government citing security reasons.
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, the Sikh community’s largest representative body in India, said Pakistan was not ready to provide security to the pilgrims.
“The condition is not favorable for pilgrims to visit. Pakistan was not ready to provide security cover to these pilgrims,” said Daljit Singh Bedi, spokesman for the committee.
“The pilgrims have returned home,” he added.
Pakistan rejected the allegations saying that the pilgrims were not allowed to leave by India, even after the Delhi-based Pakistan High Commission had granted visas for the pilgrimage.
Pakistan said it had also sent a special train to take the pilgrims to the Dehra Sahib temple in Lahore.
“Facilitation of religious tourism is a responsibility of the government of India and Pakistan under bilateral agreement between the two countries. It is unfortunate that this has been hampered twice in a short period this year depriving many Sikh Yatrees (pilgrims) of the opportunity to participate in their religious festivals,” said Nafeezs Zakaria, Foreign Ministry spokesman, in a statement released on Wednesday.
“We hope that the government of India will take effective steps to resolve the matter at the earliest,” Zakaria added.
Earlier this year, he recalled, Sikh pilgrims with Pakistani visas wishing to attend the Jor Mela, another religious occasion, were stranded at the Amritsar railway station due to "technical reasons" cited by Indian authorities.
The pilgrims returned by India were to visit Dehra Sahib temple in Lahore to observe 178th death anniversary of Ranjit Singh at his tomb. The pilgrimage is scheduled from June 28 to July 7.
