After Sarabjeet Kaur case, SGPC bars solo women devotees in pilgrim jatha to Pakistan

New Delhi: Days after a woman from Punjab went to Pakistan for jatha and later married a local and converted to Islam, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC ) has barred single divorced or single women from joining the religious pilgrimage groups (jathas) to the neighbouring country.

Sarabjeet Kaur, who hailed from Punjab's Kapurthala, went missing during a recent pilgrimage to Pakistan. The 48-year-old later married Nasir Hussain of Sheikhupura and converted to Islam. It was later found that she was facing cheating and fraud cases in Punjab and her sons were involved in several fraud, assault and cheating cases.

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SGPC's strict action after Sarabjeet Kaur case

"After the case of Sarabjit Kaur, a divorced woman from Kapurthala, Punjab, who reached Pakistan on the pretext of visiting Sikh religious places in Pakistan in a religious group, suddenly disappeared and converted to Islam and got married, the SGPC has decided that single divorced or single women will no longer be able to join the religious group of SGPC," it said.

Only women accompanying their family or husband and elderly women will be allowed to join the religious group.

Kaur married local in Pak, known him for 9 years

Kaur went to Pakistan as part of a 1932 member jatha that crossed the Attari-Wagah border on November 4 for Guru Nanak Dev’s 556th birth anniversary celebrations. When the group returned on November 13, she was missing. In a video clip, she claimed that she had known Nasir for nine years, loved him and converted to Islam and married him without any pressure. "I am currently divorced and willingly marrying him,” she says in the clip that has not been independently verified.

SGPC secretary Partap Singh said that Kaur was earlier not allowed to travel alone but she was later permitted to join the jatha after she showed recommendations from her village sarpanch and nambardar.