Gurudwara Amir Shah Singh At Jhanda Ram Street, Dera Ismail Khan

[chatanga]

regarding the writing, it is written in Gurmukhi "ye sri jhanda sahib thraj inder shah singh" .

why is it going to be demolished?

is there any way Sikhs or anyone can get it saved?

[Asad]

Thank you chatanga sahib for replying. You seem to be the only one who replies

When I visited this Gurudwara a week back and took its pictures I heard that a survey team had come and they were planning on demolishing this Gurudwara as it had become old. Now it is being used as a primary school. Maybe they want to construct a new school here. I dont know the exact time frame and what they intend to do with it but it has become very old and one of the roofs of a hall has collapsed.

But I wish they would renovate it. Its such a beautiful building with a very long pole for 'Nishan Sahib' which you can see in one of the pics.

There are very few Sikhs in Pakistan only located in Punjab and NWFP. Dera Ismail Khan is in NWFP and its a very restive province.

[GurSa Singh]

http://www.facebook....137850446237006

Asad ji,

Many thanks for bringing this to the global Sikh community's attention.

Are you aware of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee? http://www.facebook....137850446237006 Perhaps they know more.

The underlying issue is that if there is no longer a Sikh community in NWFP then it's unlikely the Gurdwara will be able to be looked after. There must be other Gurdwara buildings in rural Pakistan like this still surviving, I suspect most have been demolished after the Sikhs fled in 1947.

I know the Kabuli Sikhs did some sewa in the 1950s to 1960s in bringing back saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji to Afghanistan (where there was an active Sikh community) from abandoned Gurdwaras in West Pakistan. I know an old Sikh originally from Kabul now living in East London whose father used to go in jathas over the border to Pakistan to check on the abandoned Gurdwaras. In many instances they found very old damaged saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib which they would bring back to Kabul and try to do the sewa of them. Some of the abandoned village Gurdwaras were physically looked after by the local Muslims after 1947 but as they became old their next generation did not have the same bonds with the Sikh community, so many of the buildings became ruins.

[Asad]

GurSa Singh,

Thanks for your elaborate repy. Can you please translate the whole inscribed tablet for me. chatanga jee was kind enough to read one line from it but I would like to know what the rest of it states.

This would also let me record it for the history of my hometown. It would be very kind of you.

Waiting in anticipation.

[chatanga]

sorry bhaji the writing underneath what i translated is not clearly readable, i could only pick out individual letters, so its hard to put them into words without guessing. If you can put some clearer pics up i will try again.

Best thing would be though if the building could be saved.