SIALKOT: Up to 3,000 Sikh pilgrims visited Gurdawara Babey Di Beri here on Saturday amid tight security.

They participated in three-day rituals of the 479th death anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak Dev Ji, which concluded on Saturday.

Sialkot-based Sardar Jaskaran Singh Sidhu accorded the visiting pilgrims a warm welcome upon their arrival at Gurdawara Babey Di Beri on Thursday. Some visitors from India and other countries refreshed their pre-Partition memories as well.

Pilgrims praised the Pakistan government for upkeep of their sacred places and for providing security and religious rights to the minorities.

According to officials, some 3,000 Sikh devotees attended the concluding ceremony of the event held at Gurudawara Babey Di Beri and Darbar Sahib Kartarpur-Shakargarh.

Sardar Jaskaran Singh said that the Sikh community in Pakistan, India and Europe had warmly welcomed Pakistan government’s decision to open the Kartarpur border between Pakistan and India to facilitate the Sikh pilgrims.

MPA Mahinder Pal Singh said that visa-free entry for the Sikhs to Gurudawara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur would be a great facility for the Sikh pilgrims.

ROAD CRASH: Trader Hamza Aziz (22) and his two-year-old daughter Muskan were killed while his wife Shama Bibi and eight-month-old son Rehan were injured seriously, when a tractor-trolley hit their motorcycle near village Ban Bajwa on main Daska-Pasrur Road on Saturday.

Hamza and his daughter died at the spot while his wife and son were shifted to local hospital in a critical condition.

The police registered a case against the driver.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2018