Amritsar, April 11 -- As many as 2,238 Sikh pilgrims from India on Friday crossed over to Pakistan via the Attari-Wagah border checkpost to celebrate Baisakhi (Khalsa Foundation Day). This is only the second Sikh jatha to visit Pakistan since Operation Sindoor in May 2025 and the largest so far amid the curbs imposed by India on cross-border travel. Before this, 1,932 pilgrims had travelled to Pakistan in November 2025 for the birth anniversary of Sikhism's founder Guru Nanak. The Pakistan High Commission had granted over 2,800 visas to Indian Sikh pilgrims for the 10-day pilgrimage, during which devotees will visit key Sikh shrines, including Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hasan Abdal, Gurdwara Nankana Sahib (the birthplace of Guru Nanak), Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib (the final resting place of Guru Nanak), Gurdwara Sacha Sauda Sahib in Farooqabad, Gurdwara Dehra Sahib in Lahore and Gurdwara Rori Sahib in Eminabad. After a two-day stay in Nankana Sahib, they will proceed to Gurdwara Panja Sahib, some 400 km from Lahore, where the main Baisakhi ceremony is scheduled to be held on April 14. The group is scheduled to return to India on April 19. From Punjab, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) sent a jatha of 1,763 pilgrims from its office at the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar. The jatha was led by SGPC executive committee member Surjit Singh Tuglawal, along with general manager Harbhajan Singh (supervisor). On the occasion, SGPC chief secretary Kulwant Singh Mannan urged both the India and Pakistan governments to reopen the Kartarpur Corridor, opened during the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak in 2019. The corridor has remained shut since May 7, 2025, when the Indian armed forces launched Operation Sindoor targeting terror hideouts in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in response to the Pahalgam attack that claimed 26 lives on April 22. On other side of the border, Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) and government authorities, including Evacuee Trust Property Board, extended a warm welcome to the pilgrims and organised langar for them, besides arranging transport facilities. Around 70 pilgrims were stopped from crossing the border by authorities for lacking required clearance from Indian government. Enraged over this, they raised slogans against the government. Baisakhi, celebrated as the Khalsa Sajna Diwas, holds immense religious significance for Sikhs worldwide, commemorating the formation of the Khalsa Panth by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. The Nehru-Liaquat Pact of 1950 allows Sikh pilgrims to visit gurdwaras in Pakistan on four religious occasions - the foundation day of Khalsa Panth (Baisakhi), martyrdom anniversary of the fifth Sikh master, Guru Arjan, the death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the birth anniversary of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak. But after the Pahalgam terror attack in April 2025, the Union government barred Indian citizens from travelling to Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah border checkpost. In response, Pakistan suspended the Saarc Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) visas for Indian nationals, with the exception of Sikh pilgrims. Days before the Pahalgam attack, 5,800 Indian Sikh pilgrims had visited Pakistan gurdwaras on Baisakhi. This was the largest number of Sikh pilgrims to have visited Pakistan so far....