FAISALABAD: The residents of Chak 57 JB Khyala Kalan have set an example of religious harmony and tolerance by restoring a hundred-year-old Gurdwara to its original form for the ancient residents of their village.
Interestingly, the Jamia Masjid of the village is located on the north side of the Gurdwara, while the mausoleums and graves of village elders are on the east, and all religious places are equally respected by the village head.
Master Allah Rakha, a resident of the village, said the Gurdwara had been built in the last decade of the 18th century by the Bhangu Sikh family which came to Lyallpur from Amritsar in 1890 in memory of Baba Dutt Mall Ji. After the partition of 1947, the Bhangu family moved to the Jalandhar district of Indian Punjab and still resides there.
According to Allah Rakha, Balwinder Singh Bhangu, who belongs to the Bhangu family, was introduced to him on social media, upon which he found out that the ancient building in the village is actually a Gurdwara. Later, with the help of other villagers, he restored the Gurdwara to its original form and displayed an inscription about its history there so that people could know about the history and importance of the place.
Allah Rakha has said the people of the Bhangu family wanted to come to the village and bow their heads in the Gurdwara but were not getting visas. He appealed to the governments of India and Pakistan to ease visa policies so that people could easily visit their native villages.
