Offer prayers at home on Baisakhi: Akal Takht Jathedar

The Akal Takht on Friday asked people from Sikh community to offer prayers at home on Baisakhi and directed Sikh organizations not to organize big gatherings on the festival in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, a statement said.

No religious gathering should be organized till further directions and people from Sikh community have been asked to offer prayers at home, Giani Harpreet Singh, the Akal Takht Jathedar, said in the statement.

The decision of the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, came after Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and the Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal urged the Akal Takht Jathedar to appeal to people not to congregate on the occasion of Baisakhi.

On Thursday, the CM had prohibited all gatherings in the state.

Baisakhi, which falls on April 13 or 14 every year, is a big festival in Punjab as it marks the foundation day of the Khalsa panth' (Sikh order) by the tenth Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh.

On this day, people throng gurudwaras to pay their obeisance.