NEW DELHI – A group of Sikh devotees from India on Monday started off theirspiritual journey as part of a religious procession from Delhi to NankanaSahib in Pakistan, the birthplace of Guru Nanak Dev, the High Commission inDelhi said.
The ‘*Nagar Kirtan*’ (procession) is led by Sardar Paramjit Singh Sarna,the former president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, andincludes representatives from different sections of the Sikh community inIndia, the Pakistan High Commission said in a statement.
On Monday morning, the procession was sent off by several dignitaries,including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, it said.
Acting High Commissioner of Pakistan Syed Haider Shah also attended thesend-off ceremony as a special guest, the statement added.
The ‘*Nagar Kirtan*’ via Ludhiana and Amritsar would be crossing over toPakistan on October 31 through the Wagah border, the High Commission said.
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This ‘*Nagar Kirtan*’ from India is being welcomed by Pakistan as a specialgesture this year on the auspicious occasion of the 550th birth anniversaryof Guru Nanak Dev, the statement added.
“Around 1,300 visas, issued for the ‘*Nagar Kirtan*’, are over and abovethe ‘*jatha*’ covered under the ‘Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines1974’ between Pakistan and India,” the statement said.Advertisement
In accordance with the historic initiative of Prime Minister Imran Khan toopen the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor, to be inaugurated on November 9, forSikhs and other ‘*Naamlevas*’ of Guru Nanak Dev, Pakistan has facilitatedvisits of a number of Sikh ‘*jathas*’ not only from India but across theglobe, it said.
