The Pakistan High Commission said on 9 Mar that the country issued 2,843 visas to Sikh pilgrims from India to facilitate their participation in Vaisakhi celebrations. Under the provision of a bilateral protocol on visits to religious shrines, every year Sikh and Hindu pilgrims from India visit Pakistan and Muslim pilgrims from Pakistan visit India. In a heartwarming story outside Lahore, for more than two decades, Jitendar Singh and his family have conducted Iftar Langar – providing food for poor Muslims during the Ramazan month. In 2000, Jitendar, a pharmacist, moved with his family to Lahore from Peshawar, where Sikh families were targeted and feeling vulnerable. Jitendar said, ‘I had to leave my ancestral province (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) because of security concerns. However, I did not leave the practice of helping the destitute, especially widows and orphans. Besides langar, we also offer monthly support money, wheelchair, sewing machines and free ration for the needy.’ Meanwhile, Amir Sarfaraz Tamba, an accused in the 2013 murder of Indian death row prisoner in Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh and a close associate of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Sayeed, was killed by unidentified gunmen in Lahore a day after Vaisakhi. Pakistan claims India’s hand in the murder. India has not responded until now. In another incident, disturbing visuals have emerged from Lahore in which a man is being tied and assaulted. The Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has denied the incident and stated, 'The man in the video is not a Sikh.' The video is by 'enemies of peace ... to create misunderstanding between Muslims and Sikhs.' (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 15, Story 8).
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