Shaheedi Saka Panja Sahib: Another 19-member Sikh jatha leaves for Pakistan

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 29

A day after 117-member Sikh jatha crossed over to Pakistan to take part in the centenary of Shaheedi Saka Panja Sahib, another 19-member Jatha led by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Harjinder Singh Dhami crossed the Attari border to take part in the samagam on Saturday.

Notably, hours after the SGPC expressed its displeasure over denial of visas to 40 members yesterday, 14 more jatha members received the visas late last night.

The event started at Pakistan’s Gurdwara Sri Panja Sahib Hasan Abdal today. A gurmat samagam was held at a railway station of Hasan Abdal where the Saka had taken place in which ragi groups performed kirtan.

Before crossing over to Pakistan, the SGPC chief rejected promulgation of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Amendment Ordinance-2022, to set up a 41-member ad-hoc committee to manage the affairs of the gurdwaras till the elections were held for the formation of the new gurdwara panel. He termed it as interference in the religious affairs of the Sikhs.

Dhami elaborated that the notification, besides forming an ad-hoc committee for 18 months categorically mentioned that if the elections were not held within the stipulated time, the government would increase the time of the ad-hoc committee for the next 18 months.

He pointed out that the notification mentions that a government representative would be the patron of the ad- hoc committee while in the Sikh institutions Guru Granth Sahib and Akal Takht were supreme.

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