300 stranded at Attari as Centre blocks Pak train

Chandigarh, June 28

Nearly 300 pilgrims, mostly Sikhs, from different parts of India were stranded at the Attari railway station near Amritsar on Wednesday after the Centre didn't allow a special train from Pakistan that was to ferry them to that country to enter India.

The pilgrims, who were going to Pakistan to observe the death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, were stranded at the Attari railway station amid heavy rain.

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The SGPC said the Centre has denied permission to a 251-member Sikh delegation to visit Pakistan on the occasion of death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, citing security reasons.

The delegation, sponsored by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), was scheduled to visit Pakistan from June 21 to 29.

"The Centre has declined permission to the delegation to visit Pakistan due to security reasons," SGPC secretary Harcharan Singh told PTI today.

The Centre had informed the SGPC that if anyone wanted to visit Pakistan, then it should give an undertaking that the person was going there at one's own risk to which the Sikh religious body did not agree, he said.

On being asked whether the neighbouring country was contemplating sending a train for the delegation up to the Attari-Wagah border, he said, "Permission was not given by the Centre. Therefore, there was no question of anybody going to Pakistan."

Singh said some people were sent by a Ferozepur-based NGO to the Attari border to protest against the Centre's decision.

"But they were stopped by the police today ahead of Attari. When the permission has been declined by the Centre, how can one go to Pakistan," he said.

Another delegation, which was to visit Pakistan last month for the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Dev, was denied visa allegedly due to want of clearance from the Centre.

Officials said the central government did not allow the train, which was standing at Wagah in Pakistan, to enter India.

Railway officials at Attari said the train could not be allowed to come in the absence of permission from the central government.

The pilgrims, who had come from Delhi, Punjab and other places, raised slogans against the government.

Relations between India and Pakistan have been strained owing to terrorist incidents and ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir.

Hundreds of pilgrims, mostly Sikhs, go to Pakistan in large groups on different occasions, including the birth and death anniversaries of Sikh Gurus and on Baisakhi festival. — Agencies