SRINAGAR: The ‘Baisakhi’, creation of Khalsa Panth, was celebrated in the Kashmir valley, where members of the Sikh community visited Gurdwaras since early Tuesday morning after properly following Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.
All Party Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) and the Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee(GPC) had appealed to members of the Sikh community to strictly follow SOP during the festivity.
On this day the Mughal gardens, on the bank of famed Dal Lake in the Srinagar, are declared open for public after winter months. However, this year due to opening of Asia’s largest Tulip garden on March 25, it advanced tourist season a month earlier and guests were visiting Mughal gardens also.
Members of the Sikh community, including women and children, visited Gurdwaras for special prayers on the occasion since early this morning.
However, the main congregation was held at Gurdwara Chatipadshahi on the foothill of Kohi-e-Maran, where the shrine of Hazrat Mehboob-ul-Aalam and a temple are located in the down town. People from different parts of the Srinagar participated in the prayers at the Gurdwara, where management had organized langars for the devotees.
Similar prayers were organised at Gurdwaras in Srinagar, Baramulla, Tral, Anantnag and other parts of the valley.
Members from other communities, including Muslim and Kashmiri pundits greeted their Sikh brethren on the occasion.
Urging members of the community to celebrate the festival in nearby Gurudwaras, APSCC chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina had appealed them to avoid large gathering in view of the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases. Raina has expressed hope that the festival of Baisakhi would be harbinger of peace and prosperity in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Raina said that festival like Baisakhi brings about happiness and joy besides provide a chance to the people of different communities to come close to each other while exchanging pleasantries. “For Sikhs, Baisakhi is celebrated as the day of the creation of the Khalsa Panth. Baisakhi is a sacred and pious day for the sikh community and a true ‘Khalsa’. (Agency)
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