BAHAWALPUR: The seven-week long Channa Pir Mela going on near Tailwala town of Yazman tehsil in the Cholistan desert has been cut short by a month due to Ramazan, the Islamic month of fasting.

According to Auqaf administrator Imran Ahmed, thousands of devotees with their families are camping at the venue where they arrived on their motorcycles, rickshaws, tractor-trolleys and buses along with the food stuff, ration packs, cooking cylinders and tents.

They have gathered at the Channan Pir shrine from across the country to pay homage to their spiritual figure to spend the night of the last Thursday of the festival.

During the day festivities, the devotees tied thread knots with a tree at the shrine and prayed for acceptance of their Mannats. They also sacrificed animals, spending the night in the walled arena amid security provided by police and other law enforcement agencies. The searchlights and CCTV cameras were installed along the boundary wall for security for the night.

The Auqaf department arranged shops and set up bazaars having edibles stalls for the facilitation of the devotees. Besides, a number of entertainment and recreation facilities, including theatres, had also been provided at the venue for them to perform round the clock there.

The festivities at Channan Pir would continue for whole of the Thursday night and they would come to an end with Fajr prayers on Friday (today) when the devotees would start returning to their homes and the areas. By Friday noon (today), the whole venue would stand vacated.

Imran Ahmed told Dawn that it was the third week of the mela that opened Feb 11 and its first Thursday fell on Feb 15. The main activities happen on every Thursday during the duration of the festival when the devotees spend the whole night near the shrine.

Ahmed said originally the festival comprised seven weeks (Thursdays) and was scheduled to go on until April 10. But due to the advent of the month of Ramazan, the festival duration had been cut to four weeks and now Feb 29 would be its last Thursday. A local holiday had been recommended to Deputy Commissioner Zaheer Anwar Jappa.

TORTURED: A woman was tortured by her brothers-in-law who cut her hair in their bid to take possession of her land at Basti Gharwali in the limits of City Police Station, Lodhran.

According to Bahadur Khan, the spokesperson for the DPO Lodhran, Munir Ahmed, Yaseen and Shehzad allegedly cut hair of their sister-in-law Samreen Bibi with scissors in absence of her husband.

The victim owned one kanal of land, which the suspects wanted to take from her but she refused. At this, they tortured her severely.

On the complaint of Zarina Bibi, Samreen’s mother, City police registered a case and arrested all three suspects.

BAILED: Bahawalpur Additional District and Sessions Judge Rashid Nawaz confirmed the pre-arrest bail of three PTI leaders defeated candidates, namely its district president Asghar Joyia, Samiullah Chaudhry and Ahmed Usman Channar.

Makhdoom Kalimullah Hashmi of the PTI lawyers wing claimed that the ADSJ had reserved his judgement on Wednesday and announced it on Thursday.

Police had booked three PTI leaders in two cases registered over May 9 incidents.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2024