HYDERABAD, June 7 Syed Aijaz Hussain Kazmi, Sajjada Nasheen of the shrine of Bulri Shah Karim, died in a New York hospital on Sunday, according to information received here. He was 78.

He leaves behind wife and two sons, who had been living in New York with him for 10 years.

“It has not been decided yet whether the body will be brought to Bulri or buried in America,” said Syed Mazhar Hussain Shah, brother of Syed Nisar Hussain Shah, Sajjada Nasheeen of the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, the great grandson of Shah Karim.

“Disciples are flocking the shrine of Shah Karim after hearing about the demise of the Sajjada Nashin,” he told Dawn. The Syeds of Bhit Shah along with their families also reached Bulri soon after coming to know about the death of Aijaz Hussain Shah, he added.

Mazhar Shah said that Aijaz Hussain Shah had been in intensive care unit of a hospital over the past six days. He said that his cardiac problem turned into cancer.

Aijaz Hussain Shah, son of Ghulam Hyder Shah, has remained the Sajjada Nashin of the shrine of Shah Karim over the past 25 years.

There are hundreds of thousands of devotees of Shah Karim, most of them from Badin, Thatta and Tharparkar. Besides, everyone who has spiritual attachment with Shah Latif is also supposed to be a devotee of Shah Karim.

The mausoleum of Shah Karim is located in Bulri Shah Karim, a small dusty town in Tando Mohammad Khan district. Bulri was a woman who regularly taunted Shah Karim, a Sufi saint of high calibre. In return, according to tradition, Shah Karim told the women that her name would precede his name in the times to come. Hence, the name of the town.