NAROWAL: A ‘pir’ along with his two accomplices allegedly looted 23 tolas of gold jewellery and Rs200,000 from a family on the pretext of bringing prosperity to the household.

Muhammad Arif, a resident of Bola Bajwa village in the vicinity of Narowal, works as a cook in the Social Welfare Office.

Arif’s wife Tanzila claimed that two weeks ago when her husband was returning home from work, three unidentified men, including a 70-year-old man who claimed to be a pir and his two ‘followers’, stopped him and introduced themselves as “friends of God”. She claimed that Arif felt being under a spell and took the men home.

She said, “The fake pir started to recite something on me and Arif. Later, he told us that if we wanted children he would have to recite the same on the jewellery we possessed. For the prosperity of our household, the pir asked us to bring all of our cash also, which we did.”

She further said that the pir put the cash and jewellery in a pot, placed it in an iron box and locked it. He then recited something on the box all night. In the morning, the pir asked for rice, sugar and jam for “offering at the tomb of a pir”.

Tanzila said that the pir and his accomplices took the food items and left in a rickshaw. Before leaving, he gave the couple an amulet and told them to open the iron box the next morning. When they opened it, the jewellery and the cash were all gone. This affected Arif’s mental health severely, she added.

Arif’s sister Najama Bibi said they had filed an application the same day at the Sadar police station for registration of a case against the fake pir and his accomplices, but it has been two weeks and their case had not been registered.

The family demanded Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar take notice of the fraud and order police to register a case against and arrest the pir and his accomplices and recover their looted wealth.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2019