AAP Punjab MLAs to visit Kartarpur Sahib tomorrow

Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], November 18 (ANI): Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs from Punjab will visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan on Friday on the occasion of Guru Nanak Jayanti.
According to the party, all 11 MLAs will visit Kartarpur Sahib along with Punjab AAP chief and party MP Bhagwant Mann.
In a major decision, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government decided to re-open the Kartarpur corridor from November 17. It was shut in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Guru Nanak Jayanti, also known as Guru Nanak Gurpurab, celebrates the birth of the first Sikh Guru and is considered one of the most sacred festivals among Sikhs. The day is celebrated on the full moon day of the Kartik month as per the Hindu calendar. It is also marked as Kartik Poornima. This year the day falls on November 19.
The visa-free 4.7-kilometre long corridor joins the Indian border to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan. It became operational in 2019.
More than 20 months after the Kartarpur corridor was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a jatha of Sikh pilgrims from India crossed over to Pakistan on Wednesday ahead of the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.
Pakistan had issued around 3000 visas to Indian Sikh pilgrims on the eve of the 552nd Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev from November 17-26.

"They [the jatha] will visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Sri Panja Sahib, Dera Sahib, Kartarpur Sahib and Gurdwara Sacha Sauda," said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.

"Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi has issued around 3000 visas to Indian Sikh Yatrees to participate in the 552nd Birth Anniversary celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak in Pakistan from 17-26 November 2021. During their stay in Pakistan, the Sikh Yatrees would pay obeisance at different Gurdwaras including Gurdwara Janam Asthan in Nankana Sahib and Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur," read a Pakistan High Commission release.

The move came keeping in view the significance of the upcoming occasion of Guru Nanak Gurpurab, and the sentiments associated with the religious festival.

Earlier in this year, Pakistan has denied permission to Sikh pilgrims from India on two occasions in June this year-- one on the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Dev Ji and the second on the death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji, the MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

Visas of the Sikh pilgrims have been issued under the Pakistan-India Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines of 1974, which provides for the visit of Sikh pilgrims from India to Pakistan for the birthday celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak.

The 1974 Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines between India and Pakistan is a set of principles that was implemented while keeping in view the sentiments and devotion of the various communities in the two countries.(ANI)