KARACHI: Every now and then a new pir or amil pops up out of nowhere and claim to have a cure for incurable diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure etc. Out of blind faith on miracles or some enticingly exaggerated account of a relative, colleague or friend, people start visiting the offices of such pirs.
What concerns more is the fact that these pirs tell their clients to take sugar in their diet if they are diabetic or salt if they suffer from blood pressure. Mr Khalid, a masters’ degree holder, and a diabetic patient was quite awestruck by one such pir. The pir did nothing but granted him what he craved for the most. He handed over a small sachet of sugar to Khalid after mumbling a few words that sounded somewhat like Arabic. He was asked to eat all the sweets and sugary things in the world after he had consumed the sachet and the best part of all he didn’t have to take any medicine. The results were so severe that Khalid had a paralysis attack and his blood sugar was dangerously high.
Same is the case of amils or bhopeys. Bohpeys are usually found in rural areas, but sometimes in cities too. They are Hindu and believers of the goddess Kali Mai. They usually perform the task of taveez and ghandey to cast the evil spirit away. In short, the same job that an amil does, but the difference is that of religion. Bhopeys like amils claim to posses supernatural beings like genies and bad spirits.
Women, in particular, are often informed about a “pohnchay hoye baba jee” and they need no certificate for that baba’s authenticity. Some women go to find solution for their petty issues and end up having a bigger problem. They are raped and filmed by these very amils or their men. Their misery doesn’t end here; they are then blackmailed for the rest of their lives to either provide new preys or satisfy their demands themselves. Some even say that the amils and pirs pay some commission to housemaids for their publicity.
With all this happening so openly and media doing its bit to expose the wicked men who fool and exploit innocent people, what more warning does the public need to wake up? The law enforcement agencies are also to be blamed for doing very little about it. In the last two years, 29 cases out of which one was that of zina while the rest dealt with impersonation and fraud were registered against amils and pirs in Karachi. However, it is a well-accepted fact that the actual number of incidents that occurred had been much more than the reported figure. Many women don’t even inform their family that they had been going to amils and pirs, therefore, when they get raped, their family is ignorant about it.
Be it rural or urban areas, these soothsayers-cum-magicians or the soul purifiers are abundant everywhere. With billboards and advertisements dazzling the onlookers, no wonder people fall for it. Their publicity trick is quite austere, make most tempting promises ever. Ten days and your beloved will be yours forever. If money concerns you take one taveez and see your fortune change. Those who long for children will be blessed with child just by miracle of amil’s taveez or spell. These are a few of the examples.
Interestingly enough women whether rich or poor literate or illiterate are their prime target. It is not that men don’t fall into this ditch at all.
Amid all this, these sorcerers pocket enough money to have
fices in two to three cities. The offices in other cities serve as hideouts when the police of one city hunt for them. However, it is believed that the ones who perform black magic mint most money. Not only do they tell their clients to do abhorring things like drinking crow’s blood etc., they ask their clients to bring things which are quite impossible for an ordinary person to find (such as owl’s brain, tiger’s blood), and when their clients say they can’t arrange for it they charge them a lofty sum for that too.The scribe went to a Bengali baba, with a cousin Faizan acting as her guard, to see how they operate. The office was small and quite dark. His assistant asked about the reason for the visit and demanded Rs250 as consultancy fee. The baba was ordinary looking guy with beard, beady eyes and wearing several bead strings. There was a gut feeling that his assistant informed the amil beforehand about the clients and their problems. Don’t know what he told others but he surely tried to play smart with Faizan. He told him that someone had cast a spell on him and if he did not have that spell cast away he would die in two weeks. He told him that he could do the job for five thousand rupees as it was a very tricky spell and it was his (Faizan’s) sheer luck that he came to him just in time. Anyway, it has been more than three weeks now, Faizan is very much alive and with no ailment whatsoever.
Having said all this, there’s no denying that the relationship of pir and murshid is not new and had existed in the subcontinent for ages. The idea was to seek guidance from a pious person who can advise people to lead life according to religious teachings. This has now become a profession well sought after.
The question that arises is why people need to visit these professionals. When the world fails to solve their problems and answer their queries, they look up to the amils and pirs, says Dr Khalid Zahir, a religious scholar. “It is much better if a person tries to seek God’s help rather than man’s,” he said. However, the punishment for the amils and pirs who fool people should be according to the crimes they have committed, added the religious scholar.
A firm believer in miracles of rather science, Professor (Dr) Parvez Hoodbhoy doesn’t believe in superstitions. “I think that those amils, pirs, and mullahs who incite their followers to perform terrible deeds should be held just as responsible as those who actually perform them,” he says. However, he regretted that there was no outcry from those who claim to be great upholders of Islamic values. The crimes against women supposedly possessed by the devil were simply accepted in this society which shows its continuing slide towards barbarism.
Dr Hoodbhoy made a documentary exposing the idiocy of some soothsayers of Raja Bazaar and Murree Road in Rawalpindi that was telecast on PTV in 1994. The result was that the TV producer was threatened never to do such thing in the future. “When it comes to a debate between science and superstition, the soothsayers simply do not have a leg to stand on and all they can do is threaten violence,” he says.
On the contrary, there are some who believe that ‘true and honest pirs’ do exist. One of such believers is a professor at the University of Karachi, who wishes his name to be kept hidden. According to him, there is certain criterion to find whether the pir is genuine or not. “The true pirs never publicise themselves and are rather more of a recluse. They never charge money. They never promise that the work will be done and say that they will pray for it but the rest is up to God,” he said.
According to Zia Ahmed Awan advocate, there is no law as such against these amils and pirs. He emphasises the need for a comprehensive law that deals with the issue. He however states that there are certain sections in the law that deal with fraud, cheating and impersonating.
Whether true pir or amils exist or not, the government should start a country-wide campaign against this menace. How many more people have to suffer? The Urdu evening newspapers are filled with such ads and if people can find such folks can’t police act smart enough to catch them. These self-proclaimed “Santa Claus” of the society not only play with the emotions of public but also deceive and loot them.
