ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan High Commission announced on Monday that it had granted 112 Indian pilgrims visas to make it easier for them to visit the Shree Katas Raj temples in the Chakwal district of Punjab province. An annual bilateral protocol on visits to religious shrines allows Sikh and Hindu pilgrims from India to travel to Pakistan. Under protocol, Pakistani pilgrims travel to India annually as well.
“Pakistan High Commission has issued 112 visas to a group of Indian Hindu pilgrims for their visit to Shree Katas Raj Temples, also known as Qila Katas, in Chakwal district of Punjab from March 6 to 12,” according to a statement released by the high commission. A “spiritually rewarding yatra and safe journey” were wished for the pilgrims by Charge d’Affaires Saad Ahmad Warraich of the Pakistan High Commission.
One of the most sacred places in South Asia for Hindus, the 900-year-old Katas Raj temples are made up of a complex of multiple temples connected by walkways around a pond called Katas, which, according to Hindu sacred texts, was formed from Shiva’s tears as he sobbed while wandering the Earth following the death of his wife Sati. About 70 miles (110 km) south of Islamabad, the nation’s capital, is the village of Katas, where the complex is situated.
When the Pakistani High Commission announced the visa requirements for Hindu pilgrims on Monday, it said in a press release that “Charge d’ Affaires Aizaz Khan wished the pilgrims a memorable stay in Pakistan.”
Each year, thousands of Sikh and Hindu pilgrims from India travel to Pakistan to attend religious festivals and events under the terms of the 1974 Pakistan-India Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines.
The high commission statement further stated, “The issuance of pilgrimage visas to them was in line with the Government of Pakistan’s efforts to facilitate visits to religious shrines and promote interfaith harmony.”
Just slightly more than 3% of Pakistan’s 240 million people are non-Muslims.
Indian Sikhs can now visit the temple where Sikhism’s founder, Guru Nanak, passed away in 1539, just 4 km (2.5 miles) inside Pakistan, thanks to Pakistan’s opening of the Kartarpur corridor as a visa-free crossing in 2021. Since Nanak was born in 1469 in a small village close to the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, many Sikhs believe that Pakistan is the birthplace of their religion.
A unique thaw in ties between the two nuclear-armed adversaries and neighbors was signaled by the Kartarpur corridor.
