PESHAWAR: Muhammad Gul may be an ordinary fish-seller in Peshawar but his claim to fame is his ability to dip his bare hands into scalding oil to retrieve fried fish.

“It is my passion,” says Gul, who is 30 years of age.

A father of four, he established a fish-hut in the Ring Road area of the provincial capital many years ago and has since then developed a reputation for plunging his hands into a boiling vat of oil to pick out the fried fish.

Muhammad Gul dips his hands into a vat of oil as spectators watch on. — Photo by the author

"I started this practice eight years ago," he recounts, adding that he never felt pain or suffered any burns while doing so.

“I put my hand into boiling oil once, and then it became a regular practice. The hot oil does not burn my skin.”

Save for a little discolouration, there are no blisters on Gul's hands, even though the oil in which he regularly dips them is heated to over 150 C. He manages to sell about 30 to 35 kilograms of fried fish daily۔

Gul narrates that many people from different areas of the province visit his fish-hut just so that they can see witness his rare talent. “Everyone who visits my hotel wants to see me dipping my hands into the boiling oil just to see how it is possible,” he said.

“My wife strongly opposes this act,” he said, adding that a doctor also advised him to stop the practice as drowning hands into boiling oil is harmful for veins.

“I can’t stop it because most of my customers demand this of me,” he explained. He pulls more crowds due to this extraordinary feat.

“It’s unbelievable and unique,” an eyewitness Mirza Khan told Dawn.