Data Darbar: Pilgrims start arriving for urs

Three-day celebrations of the 967th urs of Hazrat Ali Hajveri popularly known as Data Ganj Baksh begin.

LAHORE: The three-day celebrations of the 967th urs of Hazrat Ali Hajveri popularly known as Data Ganj Baksh will begin on Sunday (today) with the chadar poshi of the  grave. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif will perform the ceremony.

More than 500 clerics, over 200 leaders of monastic orders and several sajjada nasheens of renowned sufis in Pakistan and India including Syed Muhammad Bilal Chishti of Ajmair Sharif, Deewan Syed Tahir Nizami of Delhi, and Khawaja Fariddudin Fakhari have arrived in the city to attend the event.

The urs would also attract hundreds of malangs to the shrine. Some of them have already set up camps in roadside parks near the Taxali Gate. “The mobility of pilgrims will be limited this year due to the heightened security,” said Chaudhry Muneer Ahmad, the Data Darbar Complex administrator.

He said the Auqaf and the Police Departments were jointly monitoring the security of the shrine. He said 300 policemen, 80 Auqaf Department officials, 102 guards of a private security agency and 50 Punjab Constabulary personnel would perform security duties. These, he said, would be assisted by up to 500 volunteers of the Darbar Complex. He said eight cameras installed in different spots inside the shrine will provide round the clock surveillance. Only four entrances would be used, he said. All others would remain shut. Nine walk-through gates would be installed in and around the complex. Several sessions of naat recitation, samaa, mushaira and husn-i-qirat competitions would be held during the three-day event.

Auqaf Department would arrange special ‘langars’ (free-of-charge meals) for the pilgrims. The dining arrangements would be made at the basement of the Darbar Complex. The three-day event would cost Rs4.5 million to the department.

The urs would conclude on Tuesday with special prayers led by Mufti Muhammad Ramzan Siyalvi, the prayer leader of Data Darbar Complex mosque.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2011.