Pakistan delegation denied visit to Golden Temple

Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and his delegation, who came to attend the Heart of Asia Istanbul Process conference on Afghanistan's peace process on Sunday were denied permission to visit the historic Golden Temple here.

Sources here said given that Sunday, December 4, also being Guru Tegh Bahadur's Martyrdom Day, the shrine was crowded.

"Apart from difficulties in ensuring security of VVIPs and VIPs, their (Pakistan delegation's) visit to Golden Temple today would have caused inconvenience to a large number of devotees," a source said.

On Saturday, after the senior officials' meeting of the Heart of Asia Istanbul Process conference on Afghanistan's security and economic development, participants visited the Golden Temple after lunch.

On Saturday evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani also made the trip to the holy shrine with Modi also distributing "langar" to devotees.

The sources said that two rounds of visits to the Golden Temple by VVIPs and VIPs were organised on Saturday.

"The Pakistan delegation's request for visit to the Golden Temple today was carefully looked into," a source here said.

"Given the aforementioned factors, it was not found feasible to organise adequate security for the delegation at such a a short notice."

--IANS

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