Shaheedi Diwas Of Guru Arjan Dev: Pak denies Sikh jatha nod to visit, cites second Covid wave

Pakistan government, citing the second wave of Covid-19, has denied permission to a group of Sikh pilgrims from India who wanted to visit the historic Gurdwara Dera Sahib in Lahore to mark the martyrdom day Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Sikh Guru, the SGPC Friday said.

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Bibi Jagir Kaur said, “We were fully prepared to send the jatha to Pakistan. The central government had also not raised any kind of restriction on the jatha”.

SGPC’s assistant secretary, media, Kulwinder Singh Ramdas said, “The Yatra Department of SGPC had a telephonic conversation with Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Satwant Singh, who informed that due to Covid-19 situation, the jatha coming to Pakistan on the occasion of Shaheedi Diwas of the fifth Guru has not been given permission by the government.”

Kulwinder Singh said that the jatha was scheduled to depart for Pakistan on June 6 to mark the martyrdom day on June 14.

“The pilgrims who had deposited their passports for going to Pakistan can collect them back from the SGPC’s Yatra Department,” he added.