Lal Shahbaz urs: Scorching heat claims 34 lives

The 762nd urs of the Sufi saint has attracted more than 500,000 visitors.

HYDERABAD:

Death continued to visit the devotees of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar on the second day of the urs and the taluka hospital had reportedly received 34 bodies by Wednesday evening.

At least 12 people died on Wednesday, according to the medical superintendent of Sehwan taluka hospital, Dr Moinuddin Siddiqi. Nine of the deceased were identified as Mairajuddin, Asif Gul and Arif Gul from Lahore, Shafqat Hussain from Gujaranwala, Abdul Razzak from Abbottabad, Dost Muhammad from Peshawar, Matiullah Khan from Karachi, Muhammad Mushtaq Shahani from Nawabshah and Gul Hassan from Sanghar.

Siddiqi said that all of the victims, except one, had died due to heat stroke. The mercury peaked at 46 degrees centigrade. The Met office has forecasted the temperatures to remain as high for the next few days.

Hundreds of thousands of people, mainly from the Punjab and Sindh, visit the small town of Sehwan during the urs celebrations of the Sufi saint. The 762nd urs has attracted between 500,000 to 600,000 visitors according to unofficial estimates.

Not enough shelter

The hotels and guest houses in the town are far less to be able to accommodate such a large number of visitors. Locals often vacate their houses and rent them out for a few days to the devotees. However, this temporary facility could also not meet the demand of accommodation as the poorer visitors either stay at the shrine or pitch up tents on the town's outskirts.

According to Dr Siddiqi, most of the bodies they have received were from these tents.

"We don't come here to enjoy facilities," said Ilahi Bux, who had come to the hospital to take away the body of his 45-year-old cousin, Muhammad Hashim. The two belong to Rahim Yar Khan district. "It's our aqeeda (faith) in Lal Shahbaz that brings us here. The more hardships we endeavour, the greater aqeedat (devotion) we show to our murshid."

Dozens of bodies piled up at the mortuary of the taluka hospital had caused an unbearable stench in the trauma centre and other wards. The MS said that the morgue's capacity is limited and over a dozen unidentified dead bodies were lying there.

The unknown deceased are buried by the Edhi Foundation. However, Edhi's regional incharge Muhammad Mairaj told The Express Tribune that they had only received permission to bury the dead in Sehwan's graveyards on Wednesday evening.

"We were not permitted to bury the dead people in Sehwan and had to shift them to Hyderabad or Dadu districts for burial." According to him, Edhi currently has 14 unidentified bodies whose burial will start by Wednesday night.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2014.