Sirsa against Pak cap on Kartarpur pilgrims

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 8

Manjinder Singh Sirsa, president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), is against the Pakistan’s decision to allow 700 persons a week from Dera Baba Nanak corridor to the Kartarpur shrine in Pakistan.

Addressing mediapersons here on Monday, he said the allocated strength was insufficient. He said it should be raised to 5,000 persons a week.

Hitting out at those casting aspersions that the Pakistan government would radicalise the visitors to provoke them to fight for a separate Sikh nation, he said nobody had the right to doubt the integrity and patriotism of the Sikh community.

Elaborating about the construction process on the Indian side, he said the corridor would have the capacity to handle 5,000 people daily and double the same on special occasions. It would have 15-acre terminal to be built at a cost of Rs 200 crore.

He added that a high rise tower would be built for those don’t have proper documents to travel across.

The DSGMC has prepared a plan to commemorate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. A ‘nagar kirtan’ will commence from Delhi on October 28 and will cross over from the Attari-Wagah joint checkpost to Pakistan on November 2. It will stay at Nankana Sahib on November 3 and 4. A day later, it will return to the country.

He said the DSGMC had forwarded a request for 550 participants for the ‘nagar kirtan’ to the Union Government which put forth the same to its counterpart.

In addition, 550 ‘kirtaniyas’ will recite Bani of the founder of Sikhism at one time at India Gate and 1,100 school students from DSGMC-run schools will also do the same. A 5.5-km human chain and 550 bike riders will spread the message of the Guru.

Sirsa said the Union Government had separately announced to commemorate the historic Gupurb for a year from November 12, 2019 to November 12, 2020.