Diwali celebrated across the country

NEW DELHI: People exchanged sweets and decorated their homes with earthen lamps as fireworks lit the sky across the country on Saturday on Diwali which also witnessed perfect bonhomie prevailing along the Indo-Pak borders with soldiers of the two countries shaking hands and mixing with each other.

The excitement of the occasion was palpable especially among the children and youth who burst crackers and let off fireworks to celebrate the occasion throughout the country.

Diwali festivities reached their peak in the national capital with people exchanging sweets and greeting each other on the occasion as the chant of vedic hymns and fragrance of incense sticks emanating from temples and homes charged the atmosphere.

Security was tightened across the national capital, especially in and around vital installations, markets and places of worship on the occasion in view of the terror threat.

In Amritsar, thousands of Sikhs took a holy dip in the pool at the Golden Temple and paid obeisance at its sanctum sanctorum to celebrate the festival since on this day in 1620 the 6th Sikh master Guru Hargobind Sahib was released from captivity by Mughal emperor Jahangir.

The BSF gifted sweets and fruits to Pakistan Rangers at the international borders at Attari and Poonch, mixed with one another, shook hands and exchanged pleasantries as a goodwill gesture on the occasion which symbolises the victory of light over darkness and good over evil.