Gopeshwar, May 25 (HS). The doors of the holy Sikh shrine Hemkund Sahib and Lokpal temple located in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand were opened for general devotees on Saturday. On this occasion, hundreds of devotees who reached there paid obeisance at Hemkund Sahib.
On Saturday the doors of Hemkund Sahib were opened for common devotees at 9.30 AM with Ardaas, Shabad Kirtan and Guruvaani amid tight security. With this the journey to Hemkund Sahib has begun. On Friday the first batch of Sikh devotees led by Panch Pyaras from Govindghat Gurudwara left for Shri Hemkund Sahib with the holy Nishaan and the tune of band music amid tight police security. The group took night rest at Ghangaria Gurudwara.
On Saturday morning, this group left for Hemkund Sahib. With the chants of Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal, at 9:30, the doors of Shri Hemkund Sahib and the doors of Lokpal (Lakshman Temple), a symbol of faith of Hindus, were opened for the general devotees with due rituals. The journey to Hemkund Sahib begins in May-June and continues till October. All the pilgrims coming for this journey can register themselves online and offline and this will be mandatory for all. In view of security, a limit of sending only 3,500 devotees to Hemkund per day has been set for the Hemkund Sahib Yatra. The district police has made strong security arrangements for all the devotees coming to Shri Hemkund Sahib. Also, SDRF has been deployed at the main stops of the Hemkund Sahib route.