LAHORE: Flag lowering ceremony on Friday held at Wagah border with great enthusiasm and fever.
A great number of people attended the colorful and attractive ceremony with keen interest. The crowd’s emotions were at peak and they were chanting slogans in the favor of Pakistan.
The Wagah border ‘lowering of the flags’ ceremony, or the beating retreat ceremony, is a daily military practice that the security forces of Pakistan (Pakistan Rangers) and India (Border Security Force) have jointly followed since 1959.
This ceremony takes place every evening before sunset at the Wagah border, which as part of the Grand Trunk Road was the only road link between these two countries before the opening of the Aman Setu in Kashmir in 1999. The ceremony starts with a blustering parade by the soldiers from both the sides, and ends up in the perfectly coordinated lowering of the two nations’ flags. It is called the beating retreat border ceremony on the international level.
One infantryman stands at attention on each side of the gate. As the sun sets, the iron gates at the border are opened and the two flags are lowered simultaneously. The flags are folded and the ceremony ends with a retreat that involves a brusque handshake between soldiers from either side, followed by the closing of the gates again.
