MUZAFFARABAD: Thousands of people poured onto a big playground and the main thoroughfare running along it in the old part of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) capital on Sunday to pay last respects to the noted spiritual leader Mian Mohammad Shafi Jhaagvi at what was one of the biggest funerals in the town in several decades.

Mr Jhaagvi, 74, who was thegaddi nasheen(spiritual heir) of Jhaag Sharif, a shrine located 2km off Lawat village in the upper belt of Neelum valley, had breathed his last on Saturday morning due to cardiac arrest in an Islamabad hospital where he was under treatment since Feb 9 after some health complications.

Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Chief Minister Barrister Khalid Khurshid, who is related to the late spiritual leader and is also among his disciples, had accompanied his body right from the Islamabad hospital to Muzaffarabad on Saturday and had stayed here overnight to attend the funeral.

Before the funeral prayers in K.H. Khurshid Stadium in the old city, a condolence reference was also held to pay homage to the late spiritual leader.

Speakers who included AJK President Sardar Masood Khan, Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider, GB chief minister Khalid Khurshid, PTI’s central joint secretary Khawaja Farooq Ahmed and some others described the late religious leader as a beacon of ‘light and hope’ who they said had devoted his whole life to the dissemination of the spiritual teachings that had benefited not only his family members and followers in AJK and GB but also people from remote areas of Pakistan.

While expressing their deepest condolences and sympathies to bereaved family as well as the followers of Pir Jhaagvi over his demise, they prayed to the Almighty to grant him the highest position in the Paradise.

“Pir Jhaagvi sahib was always kind to all those who used to turn to him for guidance and assistance and his sad demise is a great loss to everyone,” said President Khan on the occasion.

He said the presence of thousands of people belonging to different schools of thoughts in the funeral was a manifestation of Pir Sahib’s exalted position in the society as well as recognition of his lifelong religious and social services.

Later, Pir Jhaagviwas laid to rest in Gojra, a city neighbourhood where he had been living since 1991.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2021