Pakistan will hold talks with India to launch a new bus service to facilitate followers of Sikh religion, a cabinet minister said on Friday.

The bus service between Hassanabdal, a town some 40 km northwest of Islamabad, and Amritsar, the capital of Indian Punjab, would enable Sikhs to directly travel to their religious site in Pakistani,Minister for Religious and Minority Affairs, Muhammad Ejaz-ul-Haq said.

The minister was addressing Sikhs at Hassanabdal on the last day of Sikh Religious Festival.

Ejaz said that the government was also trying to issue multiple visas to Sikhs.

He said that his ministry had planned to construct three hotels with modern facilities at Lahore, Nankana and Hassanabdal to ensure accommodation for Sikhs.

Thousands of Sikhs celebrated Besakhi Festival to renew the pledge to exercise harmony and brotherhood enshrined in Sikh religion and the teachings of Guru Granth Sahib, the last Guru of the Sikh religion.

Besakhi Festival is celebrated throughout the world, but its celebrations in Pakistan bear special significance for being the birth place of founder of the Sikh religion, Baba Guru Nanak, at Nankana Sahib near Lahore and settlement of their last human Guru Govind Singh Maharaj, at Hassanabdal.

Source: Xinhua