Sikh pilgrims on way back from Nanded to Punjab stuck at MP border

Speaking to The Indian Express, Dilbagh Singh, one of the pilgrims, said they have been staying in a border town of Maharashtra in Jalgaon district for the past three days. “We have made repeated requests to the policemen manning the barriers at the highway to allow us to proceed to Punjab, to no avail. I appeal to Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to help us,” said Dilbagh.

Manjit Singh, the driver of the Tempo Traveller on which the pilgrims are proceeding on their journey, said that the group is staying in a Gurdwara in a place called Muktainagar in Maharashtra close to the border with Madhya Pradesh.

“We have found shelter in Gurdwara Charan Kamal Sahib in Muktainagar. We have children in the group too. Contact has been made with some prominent Sikh citizens in Indore to ask the authorities of Madhya Pradesh to allow us to proceed, but nothing had happened so far,” he said.

Manjit added that the group proposed to proceed towards Agra and from there onwards to Rohtak or Sonepat to head towards Punjab.
Bholath MLA, Sukhpal Singh Khaira, has highlighted the plight of the stranded pilgrims on his Twitter handle. He also appealed to the Punjab government to take up the matter with Madhya Pradesh.

“I have earlier also raised the issue of stranded pilgrims at Nanded with Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh but to no avail. I have again requested the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to intervene and let this group proceed. If we can bring our citizens from abroad and allow other nations to evacuate their citizens, then why cannot we get people of our state back from where they are stuck,” he asked.