Hindu jatha of 130 leaves for Katas Raj temple in Pak
AMRITSAR: To pay obeisance at Katas Raj temple in Chakwal district of Pakistan, a jatha of 130 Hindu devotees left via AttariWagah border Sunday.
Katas Raj is one of the holiest places for the Hindu community in Pakistan. The temples form a complex surrounding a pond named Katas.
Under the framework of a bilateral protocol on visits to religious shrines, Sikh and Hindu pilgrims from India and Pakistan visit the neighbouring country. Jatha president Shiv Partap Bajaj, before leaving for Pakistan said, “We had applied for 195 visas but the Pakistan government issued to only 130. Many pilgrims are disappointed as they wanted to pay obeisance at the historic temple.”
“As per the India-Pakistan government pact, only 200 Hindus can go to Pakistan every six months. We have been demanding from the governments to extend the limit to 500,” Bajaj said.
He said, the jatha will spend two days at Katas Raj and pay obeisance at a cluster of Hindu temples and will reach Lahore on December 12.
“Our efforts to pursue Pakistan government to open a samadhi for Lord Ram’s son Luv, who had founded Lahore city, have been successful. We will visit the samadhi on December 13. Also, we will take part in a function at a Lord Krishna’s temple in Lahore on December 14.The jatha will return to India on December 15,” he said. A devotee, Satish Shaukin, said, “Pakistan government should extended cooperation to devotees and 1,000 Hindu devotees should be given visas every year to pay obeisance at Pakistan’s historic Hindu temples.”
Last month, Pakistan had granted visas to more than 3,800 Sikh pilgrims to visit the country. Some of the pilgrims had attended the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor on November 28 in Narowal.