LAHORE, Nov 5: Sikh pilgrims have urged the governments of Pakistan and India to remove visa restrictions on senior citizens and relax some immigration laws to facilitate ordinary citizens of both the countries.

Talking to newsmen at Wagah on Wednesday, they stressed the need for more and uninterrupted people-to-people contacts to promote peace in the region.

Most Sikhs pilgrims were senior citizens, visiting Pakistan for the first time. Some of them crossed the border bare-footed.

“I will remain bare-footed during my 10-day stay here to pay tribute to Baba Guru Nanak,” said Suran Kaur, 75, while talking to Dawn at Wagah. She was probably the oldest among the women who arrived here from India to attend the festival.

Dr Balkar Singh, the group leader of the pilgrims from Amritsar, said that several Indian and Pakistani families had relatives across the border.

“Any effort to stop them from meeting one another would not succeed,” said the former head of the religious studies department of the Punjab University, Patiala.

He accused the politicians of impeding the process of normalization of relations between the two countries.

“They (politicians) often ignite people’s sentiments against their rival country to meet their nefarious designs. The people of Pakistan and India will have to work together to demolish the wall of hatred between the two countries.”

He said the world had become a global village and it was not wise to quarrel over petty issues.

Dr Balkar urged the Indian government to resolve the Kashmir issue by holding plebiscite there. He also demanded bus service between Lahore and Amritsar.

Jatindar Kaur was among the several other Sikhs who had left Pakistan at the time of partition. “I was 11 when my family moved to India. I am here after 56 years.

“I want to visit my birth place in Gujranwala but I am not sure whether the authorities will allow me to go there,” Ms Kaur, a nostalgic, said.

Kamal Deep Singh and Malindar Singh said that they succeeded in getting a visa to Pakistan after seven years.

Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbhandhak Committee chairman Sardar Sham Singh criticized the Indian government for not permitting the agreed number of Sikhs to attend the festival.

He said former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Pakistani counterpart Liaquat Ali Khan had signed an agreement, according to which New Delhi was bound to issue visas to at least 3,000 Sikhs to attend their main festival every year. But the Indian government had not been allowing the agreed number of Sikhs to visit their holy places in Pakistan since 1984.

ARRIVAL: 753 Sikh pilgrims arrived here on Wednesday from India and the United Kingdom to attend the 534th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak.