SUKKUR: The three-day 162nd Melo of Baba Bankhandi Maharaj concluded on a high note at Sadhu Belo temple on an island in the Indus River on Sunday night.

The festival featured many colorful events witnessed by a large number of devotees, including men, women and children, who kept pouring in from various parts of the country over the three days of the melo.

On the third and final day of the festival, the ritual of “Bhog Sahib” was performed and prizes were distributed among devotees.

Earlier, Pakistan Hindu Mandir Mana­gement Comm­ittee’s Dewan Chand Chawla, Dr Shewal Das and Ashok Kumar and Auqaf Department’s officials said at a joint press conference that it was a great success that the festival had concluded peacefully.

They thanked Evacuee Trust Property Board’s chairman Sajjad Mahmood Chohan, additional secretary Saifullah Khokhar and chairman of the mandir committee Ashok Sharma for their support in holding the festival.

They recalled that the Sindh government had initiated construction work on the temple with Rs1 billion and 520 million cost, but the work did not finish on time. In addition, quality of the work was so poor, construction had to be halted and the contractor was blacklisted, they said.

They said that the budget was available with Sindh government’s treasury and the construction work would now recommence. Although Pakistan and India were divided by a border in 1947 but their culture remained the same, they said.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2025