At least 14 pilgrims were turned back by Pakistan while legally entering the country to visit Nankana Sahib on the occasion of Guru Nanak Jayanti. “You are Hindus, only Sikhs will be allowed,” they were told by Pakistani officials.
The 14, all of whom reportedly had valid permits, were among the 1900 pilgrims who entered Pakistan via the Wagah border crossing in Punjab’s Amritsar. About 300 were turned back at the border itself as they did not have the Home Ministry’s clearance.
NDTV reported that the 14 included people from Delhi and Lucknow, and that they walked back 'humiliated' after Pakistan officials said only people tagged in their records as Sikh would be allowed.
This was the first people-to-people contact between the two South Asian nations since Operation Sindoor, which India launched in response to a deadly attack on Hindus in Kashmir.
The Wagah-Attari border -- the only active land crossing between the two countries -- was closed to general traffic following the violence.
The pilgrims were scheduled to visit Nankana Sahib -- the birthplace of Guru Nanak, west of Lahore. They will also visit other sacred sites, including Kartarpur Sahib. Thousands from Punjab have been making this pilgrimage for years, when many also visit their families in Pakistan.
Pakistan's High Commission had said last week its decision was consistent with efforts to promote "inter-religious and inter-cultural harmony and understanding".
The Kartarpur Corridor, a visa-free route that opened in 2019 allowing Indian Sikhs to visit the temple without crossing the main border, remains closed since the conflict.
Four days of clashes broke out in May after New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing a deadly attack on tourists in Kashmir’s Pahalgam. Almost all those who were killed in the attack were Hindus.
Sikhism is a monotheistic religion born in the 15th century in Punjab, a region spanning parts of what is now India and Pakistan.
The frontier between the two countries was a colonial creation drawn at the violent end of British rule in 1947, which sliced the subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
While most Sikhs migrated to India during partition, some of their most revered places of worship ended up in Pakistan, including the shrines in Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur.
