200 Sikhs leave for Lahore to mark Maharaja Ranjit Singh's 170th death anniversary

Amritsar, June 21 (ANI): A group of 200 Sikh pilgrims left for Lahore in Pakistan on Sunday by special trains on the occasion of 170th death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh who ruled the Punjab province for 40 years. He died in 1839.

Every year Sikhs visit Pakistan to pay their obeisance at the mausoleum of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Lahore at the Gurdwara Dera Sahib on the occasion of his death anniversary.

The group is scheduled to stay in Pakistan for 10 days and visit Gurdwara Janamasthan in Nankana Sahib, Gurdwara Rohri Sahib, Lahore's Gurdwara Dera Sahib, Gurdwara Sacha Sodha Sahib and Gurdwara Punja Sahib.

The main ceremony of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's death anniversary will be organised at the Gurdwara Dera Sahib in Lahore between June 27 to 30.

Group leader Baldev Singh, M.A., said that after spending a day in Punja Sahib, we would go to Nankana sahib and other Gurdwaras. We would observe the death annivasry of Maharaja Ranjit Singh at Lahore.

Gurcharn Singh, one of the members of the group from Uttarakhand said, "We would not only mark the death anniversary but also try to visit the ancestral village."

Born in 1780 in Gujranwala, Maharaja Ranjit Singh succeeded his father at the age of 12.

After several war campaigns, his rivals accepted him as their leader. He united the Sikh factions into one large state.

Ranjit Singh assumed the title of Maharaja on April 12, 1801. By Ravinder Singh Robin (ANI)