Pakistan hosts thousands of Sikhs on Baba Guru Nanak's birthday.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan is hosting thousands of Sikhs from India and other countries as the 553th birthday celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak started at the Janumasthan Nankana Sahib. The Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) made all arrangements to facilitate the Sikh yatrees (pilgrims) despite tensions with India. The main ceremony would be held at Janumasthan today (November 8) in which thousands of Sikh yatrees from all over the world would participate. Despite the defiant attitude of India, Pakistan has facilitated the Sikh community to celebrate their Guru Baba Nanak Dev Ji's birthday at the Kartarpur Corridor - another proof of Islamabad's efforts for regional peace. It was due to Islamabad's efforts that Sikhs were able to visit their holy shrine at this important event. The Kartarpur corridor is a visa-free crossing allowing Indian Sikhs to visit the temple just 4 kilometres inside Pakistan where Baba Guru Nanak died in 1539. The corridor first opened in 2019 for Baba Nanak's 550th birth anniversary but was later closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The corridor connects Pakistani and Indian Punjab, the birthplace of Sikhism, which was divided between the two countries after they gained independence from Britain in 1947. Sikhs are a tiny minority in Muslim-majority Pakistan, although many of their religious sites remain there. Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations, having fought three fullscale wars since independence over Kashmir, divided between the two countries in parts but claimed by both in its entirety. Hailed as a peace corridor, the Kartarpur crossing was reopened as the nuclear- armed South Asian rival nations upheld their ceasefire agreement in the disputed region for months. Guru Nanak spent his life's last 18 years at Kartarpur Sahib. His white-domed shrine is...