After the spring fighting: Pilgrims to Pakistan

TT

Published 19.10

        

        

       Sikh pilgrims at the border crossing between India and Pakistan on Tuesday morning. They are               allowed to cross for the first time since last spring.

       1 / 2Photo: K.M. Chaudary/AP/TT

After the deadly clashes this spring that raised fears of a catastrophic major war, there is relative calm between India and Pakistan.

Sikh pilgrims have been allowed to cross the border for the first time since last spring.

Groups of Sikhs queued on Tuesday morning at the large Wagah-Attari border crossing in the north, which is the only land route between India and Pakistan. When they came out on the other side, they were greeted by Pakistanis who distributed flowers and threw rose petals.

More than 2,100 Indians will receive visas to participate in a ten-day religious celebration, Pakistan's diplomatic mission in New Delhi announced last week. According to Indian media reports, around 1,700 people are expected to make the pilgrimage.

On the brink of spring

The opening of the border crossing and allowing passage can be seen as a conciliatory measure. The border was closed again in May, when the long-running conflict between the two nuclear powers boiled over into four days of fighting that was the worst in decades.

At least 70 people were killed in clashes in which missiles, drones and artillery were fired at positions in disputed and tense border areas.

According to Pakistan, the decision to open the border was taken to promote harmony and understanding between religions and cultures. In India, the government is reported to have given permission to selected groups to travel.

Guru's birthday

Sikhs are to celebrate the 556th anniversary of the birth of Sikhism's founder and first guru, Guru Nanak. Then the goal for many is to travel to the place where he was born, Nankana Sahib, which is one of the religion's most important shrines.

Sikhism originated in the 15th century in Punjab – an area that is today divided by the more recent national border between India and Pakistan. The border was drawn in connection with the fall of the British colonial empire, and then primarily with regard to religious dividing lines: a Pakistan with a Muslim majority and an India with a Hindu majority.

Most Sikhs migrated to the Indian side of Punjab – but many of the religion's most important shrines are located on the Pakistani side. In the decades that followed, the countries have established various compromise solutions to allow pilgrimages to take place in the sensitive border areas.

Further travel

The road in the reopened border crossing runs between the Indian city of Amritsar in the east and the Pakistani city of Lahore in the west. Nankana Sahib is located about eighty kilometers east of Lahore.

Sikhs will gather there on Wednesday and then many are expected to travel on to, among other places, Kartarpur a little further north, where Guru Nanak was buried.