Pakistan army’s first Sikh officer ties knot
LAHORE: Major Hercharn Singh, the first Sikh officer to be commissioned in Pakistan Army, got married on Sunday at Gurdwara Panja Sahib, Hasan Abdal, 40km from the capital Islamabad. A number of serving and retired officers of the army attended the ceremony.
According to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistani military, Pak army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa sent a message to Major Singh extending good wishes for his married life. His wife was not named.
Born in 1986 in Nankana Sahib, where Sikhism’s first master, Guru Nanak Dev, was born, Singh was part of the Pakistan Military Academy’s 116th Long Course. He was commissioned in 2007.
“Pakistan Army remains a symbol of national integration and respects rights of religious minorities in Pakistan,” the official spokesperson of the Pak armed forces, Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, tweeted.
According to Pakistani media, Singh’s family migrated to the Northern Areas at the time of partition and in the 1970s shifted to Nankana Sahib in Punjab province.
The gurdwara where he got married is also associated with Guru Nanak. It is considered to be particularly important as the handprint of Guru Nanak is believed to be imprinted on a boulder at the gurdwara.
Pakistan Army remains a symbol of national integration and respects rights of religious minorities in Pakistan. MAJ GEN ASIF GHAFOOR, spokesperson of the Pak armed forces