KARACHI, April 5: A 13th century graveyard in district Thatta’s Jhirk town is under serious threat due to quarrying of sandstone within its limits, visibly removing the ground layer along with grave stones.

The illegal mining continues unabated, despite the provincial Mineral Development Department’s action to cancel a lease granted to M/s Mohammad Ibrahim.

On March 30, the department wrote a letter to its office in Thatta, in which officials concerned were reminded that during a previous visit of senior officials of Thatta, they had seen some illegal quarrying taking place in Pir Lakho graveyard.

“You were directed to stop such illegal quarrying by the locals and in this context, lease granted to M/s Mohammad Ibrahim was cancelled as he was also seen working in the area,” the official letter said.

It asked local officials to conduct surprise raids in the area and involve district administration to ensure that no illegal mining/quarrying took place in the historic site.

However, a senior official entrusted with the care of historic monuments of the province said he had visited the area after the instruction had been issued to Mineral Development officials in Thatta and had seen no halt to the illegal practice.“We saw that almost half of the graveyard’s area was under the use of the people involved in sandstone excavation, and their activity is destroying yet another historic site of Sindh,” Dr Kaleemullah Lashari, Director-General, Projects and Special Initiatives of the government of Sindh, told Dawn.

The graveyard of Pir Lakho is one of the major burial grounds in Sindh. The oldest graves are roughly dressed sandstone structures dating back to the 13th century. The Soomras living in Thatta region used to bury their dead besides the graveyard of Shah Kapur in 13th and 14th centuries. The most recent graves and ‘chaukandis’ belong to the 18th century and are very interesting structures.

The graveyard is extensive and comprises graves of three types; The first type is simple graves marked by stones placed on them, and these are scattered across the whole graveyard.

The other kind of graves are made out of stone slabs of sandstone, locally quarried as the area around has good quality building stone in abundance. These graves are made in the style that is found exclusively in Kohistan of Dadu and Thatta districts along with areas of Karachi and Lasbela districts.

The third category comprises dressed stone graves under stone ‘chhattries’ (these ‘chhattries’ are called ‘chaukandis’ and are the most sought after funeral structures in western India). Thus, at Pir Lakho graveyard, a new technique of ‘chhattri’ building has been devised.

According to Dr Lashari, it was shocking to see heavy machinery being used for quarrying sandstone, and the labour force was working under the impression that the land in question was leased officially.

“One wonders, is it possible that a historic site with abundance of over-ground structures can just be overlooked and such a lease for removing ground layers be licensed?” he asked.

In a letter, the DG (P&SI) requested top officials of provincial Mines and Mineral Development Department to look into possibilities of making it obligatory under the law to have the environmental and archaeological impact assessment done before granting lease of any area for mining, quarrying, explorations etc.

In a separate letter to the Thatta DCO, Dr Lashari wrote that his department was undertaking the maintenance and conservation of the historic remains in the Pir Lakho graveyard at a cost of Rs13.8 million. He requested the DCO to stop the dangerous activity forthwith to safeguard the province’s heritage and ensure that no such devastation took place in future.

Besides, the DCO was also requested to instruct officials of the Revenue Department to earmark the limits of the historic graveyard so that a scheme envisaging fencing of the whole site and overall conservation could be implemented.