"Pakistani officials told us you are Hindu, you cannot go with a Sikh jatha," said Amar Chand, who was sent back along with six of his family members after they crossed over to the neighbouring nation to participate in the birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev.
India today summoned Pakistan's deputy high commissioner in New Delhi and lodged a strong protest over the denial of access to its envoy in Islamabad and consular officials to visit Gurdwara Panja Sahib and meet visiting Indian pilgrims.
The MEA called it an "inexplicable diplomatic discourtesy" by Pakistan
Gopal Singh Chawla, under the instructions from the Pakistani authorities, recently stopped Indian officials from entering Gurudwara Panja Sahib on April 14 (Baisakhi day).
Pakistani authorities have cut short the visit of Indian pilgrims to Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hasanabdal city of Punjab province due to the security situation, days after the killing of two abducted Sikhs by the Taliban in the restive northwestern tribal belt.
Kiran Bala, who went to Pakistan to attend the Baisakhi festival, changed her name to Amna Bibi.
Modi brought up the emotive issue of the gurdwara in Kartarpur Sahib, a place sacred to Sikhs as Guru Nanak Dev spent the last years of his life there, and blamed the Congress for country's partition, saying they did it for sake of power.
After several years of travelling, Guru Nanak settled down at Kartarpur as a farmer. His followers were the first Sikhs of an order that was to prevail for many years to come. A fascinating excerpt from Sikh Heritage: A History of Valour and Devotion.
Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi tweeted, 'Prime Minister Imran Khan will break ground at Kartarpura facilities on 28 November.'
'The two NSAs, who have been mandated to address mutual concerns on terrorism, will need to devise credible and irreversible measures to see that the likes of Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar do not ever get a free hand to run riot again,' says Ambassador G Parthasarathy, India's former high commissioner in Pakistan.
One man follows Guru Nanak's visits to multi-faith sites across nine countries.
