Sikhs of Jammu and Kash­mir are happy that like the mem­bers of the Sikh com­mu­nity from across In­dia, all the 261 ap­pli­cants for visa to visit Pak­istan Gur­d­waras dur­ing Baisakhi have been granted visas. This has be­come pos­si­ble due to the ini­tia­tive of the Dis­trict Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee Jam­mu’s ef­forts in tak­ing up the mat­ter with the Pak­istan em­bassy in New Delhi. WSN re­ports.

In a mo­ment of joy and spir­i­tual sig­nif­i­cance, 261 mem­bers of the Sikh com­mu­nity from Jammu and Kash­mir have been granted visas to visit his­tor­i­cal Gur­d­waras in Pak­istan for the Khalsa Sajna Di­was (Baisakhi) cel­e­bra­tions. This marks a land­mark achieve­ment, as it is the first time in many years that all ap­pli­cants from the re­gion have re­ceived ap­proval for the pil­grim­age, which co­in­cides with one of the holi­est days in the Sikh cal­en­dar.

This un­prece­dented suc­cess has been made pos­si­ble through the ded­i­cated ef­forts of the Dis­trict Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee (DGPC) Jammu, which proac­tively pur­sued the mat­ter with the Pak­istan High Com­mis­sion in New Delhi.

Sim­i­larly, the Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee (SGPC) Am­rit­sar also man­aged to get visas for all their ap­pli­cants.

So­cial ac­tivist Shamsher Singh Cholavi, who has been ded­i­cat­edly serv­ing the cause for the past 30 years was elated at the re­sponse of the San­gat and the co­op­er­a­tion of the Pak­istan High Com­mis­sion.

Joy­ful De­par­ture from Jammu

Early in the morn­ing, scenes of ela­tion un­folded in Jammu as men, women, and chil­dren gath­ered with their fam­i­lies to em­bark on the sa­cred jour­ney. Dressed in tra­di­tional at­tire and singing hymns, the pil­grims boarded buses that would take them to the Wa­gah-At­tari bor­der, where they would cross into Pak­istan.

For many, this jour­ney is more than a pil­grim­age — it is a re­turn to an­ces­tral lands. Sev­eral el­derly mem­bers of the group broke into tears, re­call­ing how their fore­bears once lived in what is now Pak­istan be­fore the Par­ti­tion of 1947. For a few younger pil­grims, this is their first op­por­tu­nity to visit the Gur­d­waras of their an­ces­tors, places they had only heard about in sto­ries passed down through gen­er­a­tions.

“This is a dream come true,” said an el­derly Sikh, a res­i­dent of Poonch dis­trict. “I have waited my whole life to bow my head at Gur­d­wara Panja Sahib and Gur­d­wara Nankana Sahib. I never thought I would see this day.”

Over­com­ing Bu­reau­cratic Bar­ri­ers

The usual visa process for vis­it­ing Gur­d­waras in Pak­istan is of­ten fraught with de­lays and pro­ce­dural ob­sta­cles. In the past, only a lim­ited num­ber of Sikh pil­grims from Jammu and Kash­mir could se­cure visas due to ad­min­is­tra­tive hur­dles or po­lit­i­cal ten­sions. How­ever, this year’s suc­cess story is dif­fer­ent. The DGPC Jammu, led by its pres­i­dent and se­nior mem­bers made stren­u­ous timely ef­forts to ob­tain visas for all.

Their ap­peals were met with re­spon­sive­ness and em­pa­thy by Pak­istan’s High Com­mis­sioner in New Delhi, Mr. Saad Ah­mad War­raich, who ex­pe­dited the process and en­sured that the visas were is­sued in record time. This de­vel­op­ment re­flects a rare mo­ment of co­op­er­a­tion and good­will, demon­strat­ing that spir­i­tual and cul­tural ex­changes can tran­scend po­lit­i­cal di­vides.

A Record-High Quota of 6700 Pil­grims

Un­der the long­stand­ing Indo-Pak­istan Pro­to­col on Vis­its to Re­li­gious Shrines, a quota of 3,000 Sikh pil­grims is usu­ally al­lowed to visit Pak­istan for Baisakhi. How­ever, in a sig­nif­i­cant ges­ture this year, the Evac­uee Trust Prop­erty Board (ETPB) in Pak­istan, which over­sees the man­age­ment of Sikh and Hindu re­li­gious prop­er­ties, rec­om­mended a larger quota. The Gov­ern­ment of Pak­istan, ac­ced­ing to this re­quest, ap­proved visas for as many as 6,700 Sikh pil­grims — more than dou­ble the tra­di­tional num­ber.

This gen­er­ous ex­pan­sion has en­abled not just those from Pun­jab and other parts of In­dia to par­tic­i­pate, but has es­pe­cially ben­e­fit­ted his­tor­i­cally un­der­served re­gions such as Jammu and Kash­mir, where the Sikh com­mu­nity has long sought equal par­tic­i­pa­tion in re­li­gious pil­grim­ages.

SGPC and DGPC Thank Pak­istan En­voy

The SGPC in Am­rit­sar and the DGPC Jammu  have ex­pressed pro­found grat­i­tude to the Pak­istan High Com­mis­sion for its sup­port and timely in­ter­ven­tion.

Jag­pal Singh, who led the  ef­forts on be­half of the DGPC Jammu, said, “We are deeply thank­ful to High Com­mis­sioner Saad Ah­mad War­raich for un­der­stand­ing the sen­ti­ments of the Sikh com­mu­nity and en­sur­ing that our pil­grims from Jammu and Kash­mir were not ex­cluded. This ges­ture will be re­mem­bered for years to come.”

The SGPC Pres­i­dent Har­jin­der Singh Dhami, in a com­mu­nique to the Pak en­voy, ex­pressed deep grat­i­tude and hoped that this will con­tinue in the fu­ture too.

“We are deeply thank­ful to High Com­mis­sioner Saad Ah­mad War­raich for un­der­stand­ing the sen­ti­ments of the Sikh com­mu­nity and en­sur­ing that our pil­grims from Jammu and Kash­mir were not ex­cluded. This ges­ture will be re­mem­bered for years to come.”

Jag­pal Singh, leader, DGPC Jammu, who spear­headed ef­forts for the J & K San­gat

Pil­grim­age Itin­er­ary

The 261 pil­grims from Jammu and Kash­mir are ex­pected to visit some of the most sa­cred Sikh sites in Pak­istan over the next sev­eral days. These in­clude:

• Gur­d­wara Panja Sahib in Hasan Ab­dal, as­so­ci­ated with Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
• Gur­d­wara Nankana Sahib, the birth­place of Guru Nanak.
• Gur­d­wara Dera Sahib in La­hore, the site of mar­tyr­dom of Guru Ar­jan Dev Ji.
• Gur­d­wara Kar­tarpur Sahib, the fi­nal rest­ing place of Guru Nanak, now ac­ces­si­ble via the Kar­tarpur Cor­ri­dor for pil­grims from In­dia.

Many of the pil­grims will also take the op­por­tu­nity to ex­plore her­itage sites and re­con­nect with his­tor­i­cal nar­ra­tives that form an in­te­gral part of Sikh iden­tity in the sub­con­ti­nent.

A Step To­ward Heal­ing and Har­mony

This year’s suc­cess­ful visa is­suance to Sikh pil­grims from Jammu and Kash­mir of­fers a glim­mer of hope at a time when re­la­tions be­tween In­dia and Pak­istan re­main strained. Spir­i­tual diplo­macy — the free move­ment of pil­grims to re­li­gious shrines — can play a pow­er­ful role in re­duc­ing ten­sions, build­ing trust, and re­con­nect­ing com­mu­ni­ties with their cul­tural and spir­i­tual roots.

For the Sikh com­mu­nity of Jammu and Kash­mir, of­ten mar­gin­al­ized in larger dis­courses, this mo­ment is one of recog­ni­tion and af­fir­ma­tion — a chance to be seen, heard, and spir­i­tu­ally up­lifted.

As the buses rolled out of Jammu city, chants of “Bole So Ni­hal…Sat Sri Akal!” echoed through the air, re­mind­ing all that the spirit of faith and fra­ter­nity can over­come even the most per­sis­tent of bor­ders.