Daily Times

As many as 200 Hindu pilgrims from India will reach Pakistan on March 6, Wednesday via Wagah border to attend the festivities of Shivratri.

The 900-year-old Katas Raj temples, one of the holiest sites in South Asia for Hindus, form a complex of several temples connected to one another by walkways that surround a pond named Katas that Hindu sacred texts say was created from the teardrops of Shiva as he wandered the Earth inconsolable after the death of his wife Sati. The complex is located in the village of Katas in Punjab’s Chakwal district, some 110 km (70 miles) south of the capital Islamabad.

“Charge d’Affaires, Saad Ahmad Warraich, wished the pilgrims a spiritually rewarding yatra and safe journey,” the Pakistani high commission said in a statement. Under the Pakistan-India Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines of 1974, each year thousands of Sikh and Hindu pilgrims from India visit Pakistan to attend various religious festivals and occasions.

“The issuance of pilgrimage visas to them is in line with the Government of Pakistan’s efforts for facilitating visits to religious shrines and promoting interfaith harmony,” the high commission added. Maha Shivratri, a Hindu festival, is celebrated in honor of deity Shiva between February and March every year. This year the auspicious day will be observed between March 8 (9:27 pm) and March 9 (5:47 pm).

One takes a holy bath and performs the puja by lighting a diya with desi ghee in front of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati.

Senior officials of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) and local Hindu leaders will welcome the pilgrims.

Main ceremony of the Maha Shivratri will be organized by the ETPB at the historic Katas Raj temple Chakwal on March 9 (Saturday) to be attended by various political, social and religious leaders.

ETPB Secretary Rana Shahid Saleem said that in the light of orders of ETPB Chairman Arshad Farid Khan, all arrangements including security, accommodation, and transportation of pilgrims had been finalized.

The Hindu pilgrims will return Lahore from Katas Raj, Chakwal on March 10 (Saturday). They are scheduled to visit Krishna Temple, Shahi Qila (Lahore Fort) and other historical places in Lahore on March 11 and return India on March 12 (Monday).

Non-Muslims make up only a little over three percent of Pakistan’s more than 241 million population.

In 2021, Pakistan opened the Kartarpur corridor as a visa-free crossing, allowing Indian Sikhs to visit the temple just 4km (2.5 miles) inside Pakistan where Sikhism’s founder Guru Nanak died in 1539.

Many Sikhs see Pakistan as the place where their religion began as Nanak was born in 1469 in a small village near the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.