KOHAT: The committee of Shia elders has rejected the new date of Safar 21falling on Dec 14 (Sunday) for holding Chehlum of Hazrat Imam Hussain in Kohat.

Sources said that Deputy Commissioner Riaz Mehsud and the five-member committee each of Ahle Sunnat Wal-Jamaat and Shia elders held four-day negotiations and decided that the Chehlum in Kohat would be held on Safar 21 (Dec 14).

However, in a statement the head of the Shia committee, Syed Ibne Ali, said that while fixing the new date for the event the Shia community was not taken into confidence. Both the sects had agreed on holding Chehlum on Safar 25 at a jirga in 1988, which was presided over by then prime minister (late) Mohammad Khan Junejo and since then the Chehlum is being observed on that specific day.

Mr Ali said that Chehlum would be held according to the 1988 agreement. He said that councils of the Shia Bangash, Kohat, and Orakzai Agency met at Jamia Raisan on Thursday and announced that the Chehlum would be held like the previous years on Safar 25.

He said that they had distributed posters for Dec 18 (Safar 25) and now it was impossible for them to accept the new date fixed by the administration.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2014