The Sikh community in Lahore have been prevented from observing a religious celebration at a gurdwara, their musical equipment thrown out and their entry barred, after a religious group persuaded the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) that celebrating the Muslim holy day of Shab-e-Barat was more important than the Sikh religious festival.
A policeman stands guard at a Sikh temple that a group claims is the burial site of a Muslim saint.
Police have been deployed outside the temple to prevent the Sikhs from conducting their religious ceremonies until the end of Shab-e-Barat, which falls on July 18 this year. The Sikh community wanted to commemorate an eighteenth-century saint on July 16.
The Gurdwara Shaheed Bhai Taru Singh, in Naulakha Bazaar, Lahore, is built to honour the memory of a Sikh saint who was executed in 1745 on the orders of the Mughal governor of Punjab, Zakaria Khan. Every July, the Sikh community has held religious ceremonies to commemorate his sacrifice in the service of humanity.
What a great celebration by such so-called Muslims!!! Is this is the message of Shab-e-Barat?? Our beloved Master Muhammad (saw) allowed a Christian delegation of Najran to pray and do their religious duty in his own mosque, and today the Muslims who are celebrating Shab-e-Barat in his name are not allowing other religions to go their own places. Strange!! May God guide such people to the right path and where they can practice what they say. Ameen