100-member delegation from Kolkata visits Kartarpur gurdwara

KOLKATA: A 100-member delegation from Kolkata — comprising people from Sikh, Sindhi and Bengali communities — visited Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in the Punjab province of Pakistan on Sunday, marking the occasion of the Prakash Utsav of Guru Angad, the second of the 10 Sikh gurus.
The initiative — Kudrat ke sab bande — was taken by the chairman of IHA Foundation, Satnam Singh Ahluwalia, to spread the message of peace, unity and brotherhood.
“We left Kolkata on Friday and on Sunday, we started our yatra from Akal Takht Sahib, which is located in the Golden Temple complex, to reach Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur via the Kartarpur corridor,” said Ahluwalia, adding that the delegation received immense love and warmth from the Pakistan side. Guru Nanak founded Kartarpur on the banks of river Ravi and spent 18 years there until his death. The gurdwara was built to commemorate the site where Guru Nanak settled after his missionary work and concentrated on farming.
For 70-year old Nanik Sambtani, it was an experience of a lifetime. “I always had a desire to visit Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara on the other side of the border. As a Sindhi, we hailed from Sindh province, which is in Pakistan. At the gurdwara, I interacted with many Sindhis, who were serving langars, and discussed our shared history and asked about our ancestral village. It was like revisiting the past,” said the secretary of the Holy Mission of Guru Nanak.
“Visiting the gurdwara which is a symbol of peace, brotherhood and harmony was a divine experience which cannot be expressed in words,” said Murli Punjabi, secretary of the Sindhi panchayat.