KARACHI: Salman Rashid’s article of December 3 titled “The dog’s grave” was well-written and amusing. One thing I would like to add is that people in the area that the writer has spoken of are very inventive about stories concerning any unexplained object or landmark. These are usually sad stories with a moral, and ‘kuttay ji kabr’ has given rise to many such tales.
What is accepted as the truest account is actually fairly prosaic. In the 19th century, there was a heliograph system in place in those parts. One of the terminals of that system was at Cape Monze, west of Karachi, and went along the Kirthar range from peak to peak. One of those stations was at Kuttay ji Kabr in Larkana district. A British officer posted there had a dog whom he was very fond of. When the dog died, he buried him nearby and the locals, unused to such behaviour, began to call the peak by that name: ‘the dog’s grave’. Remains of the heliograph station are still to be seen. The walls of the house and office still exist, although the roof and windows have long since fallen to ruin.
Khalid Mehmood Khuhro
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2011.
