Amidst the tension spiraling between the two neighbouring countries over the death sentence handed out to a former Indian Navy official Kulbhushan Jadhav for ‘spying’ by Pakistan army court, Hindus from Pakistan on a pilgrimage to India had a dip in the holy Ganga in Haridwar on Wednesday.
The batch of the pilgrims from the neighbouring country comprises 133 persons -98 men, 25 women and 10 children. After they quenched their religious thirst by their dip in the river, universally acclaimed as the cleanser of human sins and giver of salvation from the worldly bondage, they said that the pilgrimage they were on found its consummation in the holy dip at Har-ki-Pauri.
Mostly hailing from Pakistan’s Punjab and Sindh provinces, the pilgrims would stay in Haridwar for four days. They also offered prayers at Sadani Ashram and engaged in Swachta Abhiyan.
One of them said that the Hindus living on the other side of the border greatly admire Narendra Modi and the campaign he launched to make India clean.
The pilgrims cleaned the ghats of Ganga with devotion like what they did last year.
A beaming Hasmat Ram, a middle- aged pilgrim, said while talking to The Pioneer, “I am now feeling as if I have come back to the warm lap of my mother. I have been visiting the holy city for the past two years. It gives a soul-stirring bliss whenever I take the dip in the Ganga who is universal motherhood personified. Besides, the place Har Ki Pauri has a spiritual significance of its own as it is deemed as ‘Hari ka dwar,’ the gateway to the abode of the gods,” he said. The chief coordinator of the congregation, Sangeeta Shadani said, “Every year we try to bring different batches of pilgrims to India. This batch would visit other holy towns of India as well. During their four- day sojourn in Haridwar, they would not just perform the religious rituals but would also engage in the sanitation campaign going on at various Ganga ghats in the city,” adding that the pilgrimage is carried out every year under the protocol agreement involving the two neighbours.