Pakistani Hindu devotees reach Puri in Odisha, offer prayers to Lord Jagannath

A group of Hindu devotees from Pakistan's Karachi visited the famous Jagannath temple in the pilgrim town of Odisha’s Puri and offered prayers to Lord Jagannath. The group of 45 people, including men, women and children, started their journey on January 11 from Karachi and reached India.

Puri (Odisha):A group of Hindu devotees from Karachi in Pakistan paid a visit to the famous Jagannath temple in the pilgrim town of Puri in Odisha. Soon after they offered prayers to Lord Jagannath on Saturday night. The group of 45 people, including men, women and children, started their journey on January 11 from Karachi and reached India.

it is learnt that these devotees have been conductign Rath Yatra in Karachi for the past 14 years. “We have been waiting for the last 14 years to visit Puri and at last "we fulfilled our dream". We were in tears when we saw Lord Jagannath,” a devotee from Karachi told the media. He further stated that all these years he has been watching Lord Jagannath and His siblings on YouTube and live streaming on television, but when he had a darshan of Lord at the 12th-century shrine, "I am overjoyed and there are words to express."

Meanwhile, another devotee said, “We began our trip on January 11 and visited Gurudwaras in Lahore the following day. On January 13, we visited Ram Tirath temple and Durgiana Mandir in Amritsar of Punjab. We also took a holy dip at Haridwar on the occasion of Makar Sankranti on January 14 and visited Jammu. ”The devotees thanked the Government of India and Pakistan for giving them this opportunity. Notably, their whole trip was sponsored by Odisha International Centre (OIC).