Amritsar Taking cognisance of a TOI report on Pakistani Sikh pilgrims being denied passage through the Wagah-Attari international border to travel to India for their pilgrimage to Hemkund Sahib, former Rajya Sabha MP and Padma Bhushan awardee Tarlochan Singh has urged the Pakistan high commissioner in India to reconsider the decision and allow the pilgrims to cross by land, which would spare them the arduous journey and the additional financial burden of expensive air travel.While speaking to TOI on Friday, Tarlochan Singh questioned why Pakistani Sikh jathas could not be allowed to cross the border for pilgrimage when Sikh jathas from India are permitted to travel to Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah border to visit religious shrines. He said he was flabbergasted after reading the report about Pakistani Sikh devotees being denied permission by their own government to travel to India by road.“I am astonished to read the story that the Pakistan government has not allowed its own citizens, a group of Sikh pilgrims going to Hemkund Sahib, a Sikh shrine in India, to travel through the Wagah border,” Tarlochan Singh wrote to the Pakistan high commissioner on Friday. He further pointed out that Pakistan had “made a huge mistake” by denying the facility to Sikhs permanently residing in the country, when Sikh pilgrims from India are allowed to cross the Wagah-Attari international border several times a year to undertake pilgrimage to Sikh shrines in Pakistan.Notably, the jatha is not covered under the 1974 Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines, but comprises Sikhs who undertake an annual pilgrimage to Hemkund Sahib. The Attari-Wagah land route was closed during Operation Sindoor due to security reasons.However, under the existing understanding between the two countries, Pakistani nationals in India are allowed to return to Pakistan through the land border. Former Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee member Sarbat Singh said they had not received permission to cross the Wagah-Attari border. Despite several attempts, Papinder Singh , jatha leader, could not be contacted, as he neither answered calls nor responded to a WhatsApp message. Tarlochan Singh said the Pakistani Sikhs wishing to undertake the pilgrimage were now being forced to travel by air, incurring considerable additional expenditure. “I request you to please reconsider such a decision which creates a hindrance to the small Sikh community living in Pakistan in its religious affairs. I remember it was for the first time that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took the decision to allow Sikhs living in Pakistan to come to India for pilgrimage,” the former MP wrote to the Pakistan high commissioner.*Tarlochan Singh *
