Devotees at the Golden Temple during the Diwali festival celebration and the eve of the 'Bandi Chhor Divas', in Amritsar, Thursday, Oct 31, 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
Amritsar: A number of devotees paid obeisance at the Golden Temple on Friday on the occasion of "Bandi Chhor Divas".
Since early morning, devotees queued up to pay obeisance in the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple and Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs.
Bandi Chhor Divas marks the historical release of the sixth Sikh guru, Guru Hargobind, along with 52 kings from the Mughal prison in 1620.
After his release, Guru Hargobind reached the Golden Temple and the holy city was illuminated as people lit "diyas" to celebrate the occasion.
However, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh recently directed Sikhs to refrain from decorating their houses and other buildings with electrical lights on Bandi Chhor Divas, reasoning that it falls on the same day as the 40th anniversary of the "brutal massacre of Sikhs in 1984".
He asked them to opt for traditional diyas instead.
"Forty years back on November 1, 1984, there was a genocide of the members of the Sikh community in Delhi and 110 other cities across the nation. Sikhs were brutally killed by the mob which was backed by the then ruling Indian government," he said.