Commemorations to mark the 116th death anniversary of sufi poet Khawaja Ghulam Fareed ended on Sunday.
Devotees from across the country flocked to Kot Mithan to participate in the three-day observances amid district government ban on cultural festivities due to security threats.
Khawaja Amir Koreja, the Jamaat-i-Faridia Party president, said the security threats and prohibition of poetry competitions and other presentations did mar the festival to an extent.
“During the over 100 years that the urs has been observed, there hasn’t been a year when the poetry and other recitals were not held,” he regretted.
DPO Zahid Mehmood Gondal told The Express Tribune that the police had kept a vigilant eye on the security situation. He said despite the fact that the shrine caretakers had received threats against urs observance, the event had gone well. He said over 30,000 visitors had thronged to the shrine in the three days. He said attendance would have been higher, had people not been discouraged by the recent attack on Khushal Express.
He said Section 144 had been imposed around the mausoleum. Over 300 security personnel had been deputed around the shrine over the three days. CCTV camera and scanners were also installed at entrances, he said.
Moinuddin Koreja, the sufi successor of the shrine, offered special prayers on the last day. He, however, regretted the ban on poetry recitation at such events and said it was a step against promotion of Seraiki and Punjabi sufi culture.
The peaceful protest against the ban continued for the three days. Koreja said this was also a reason the number of visitors had decreased this year to half of how many visited in the previous years. The fact that Saturday was declared a local holiday in the district didn’t help either, he added. Muhammad Bilal Chisti, the successor at Ajmer shrine, was the chief guest at the event.
A Seraiki National Conference was organised on the first day. Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Sher Ali Gorchani was the chief guest at the conference.
Artists, who had painted walls around the shrine made special appearance on the third day. The artists, from Baseerpur in Okara, painted verses and teachings of the sufi poet over walls.
A small protest was also organised by daily wagers, who said they otherwise organised small circus, stalls and swings around the shrine for visitors. He said earnings from sales at such events such as urs commemorations were a major source of their annual income. They said by banning festivities, the government had caused them losses.
Momal Mai, a painter, told The Express Tribune that every year she set a painting stall, where she sold painted clothes, shawls and home linen. She said she was sent back when she brought stuff for display this year.
Koreja said the terrorist state of mind was more dangerous than acts of terrorism.
“We need to fight the terrorist psychology, because that had affected the nation’s moral.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 10th, 2014.