By Hassaan Ahmed
The three-day Urs celebrations of Hazrat Ali Bin Usman Hajveri, commonly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh started amid tight security in Lahore on Saturday as Finance Minister Ishaq Dar formally inaugurated the 973rd Urs celebration of the great Sufi saint of the Sub-continent. The three-day Urs celebration will conclude on Monday; the day when the Chehlam of Hazrat Imam Hussain will also be observed. The security of all the shrines was beefed up following the attack on the shrine of Shah Noorani in Balochistan during Urs celebrations that took about 60 lives.
The holy shrine of Data Sahib came under the attack of a suicide bomber in 2010 in which nearly 40 people were killed. These two events of Data Sahib Urs and Chehlam of Imam Hussain coincide with each other and therefore police have to take strict security measures in for the public to remain safe from any planned attack. Unfortunately, the Chehlam of Imam Hussain came under attack in Lahore near Urdu Bazar in 2011 when a suicide bomber blew himself up killing 11 people. More than 10,000 police officials will be deputed for the security of devotees of Data Sahib and mourners of Imam Hussain.
Tens of thousands of devotees from all over the country pay tribute to the great Sufi Saint by participating in the Urs celebration and stay in the surroundings of the shrine. It is an old tradition of the Urs of Data Sahib that thousands of litres of milk are distributed among the devotees free of cost and this holy distribution continues throughout the three days.
Muhammad Waseem, a devotee from Faisalabad, told this scribe that he has been coming to the shrine of Data Sahib since his childhood to get maximum blessings. “We have come here on the bicycles as a group by covering a distance of more than 150 kilometres to pay homage to Data Sahib,” he said while adding that it took 7 hours to reach the shrine. Similarly, thousands of devotees from across the country remain present at the shrine listening Qawalis and dancing to the beats of drums.
Public Holiday
The City District Government of Lahore has also announced a public holiday on Monday, though the offices of the provincial government will remain open. A confusion among the students surfaced when some private schools refused to observe the holiday citing the reason that the annual exams are quite near. Kashif Mirza, President of the All Pakistan Schools Federation, the association that represents the elite schools like Beaconhouse and Lahore Grammar School, told Pakistan Today that their federation cannot announce the holiday of a local level as their association represents the whole country. “We have authorised the local school management to announce such a holiday and they can take any decision but our federation will not announce a holiday on Monday,” he said. He was of the view that the holiday is not in the interest of students keeping in view the already reduced academic year. On the other hand, Adeeb Jawdani, President of the All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association decided to observe a holiday on Monday. The association of Jawdani represents the small private schools scattered in every nook and corner of the country.
