KASUR: The three-day celebrations of 263rd Urs of Sufi poet Hazrat Baba Bulleh Shah began here on Friday after the ghusl (religious bathing) ceremony.

Provincial Auqaf Minister Syed Saeedul Hassan Shah performed the ceremony with rosewater. DC Manzar Javid Ali was also present and they laid the traditional chaddar on the grave and offered fateha.

The district administration has announced local holiday on Saturday, the second day of the Urs. It curtailed some of the programmes that are organised every year due to coronavirus.

The Auqaf department is organising all the affairs of the event as the Religious Affairs Committee had been dissolved. Last year, the PTI was divided over the establishment of the committee and the two factions announced their own committees. As a result, environment remained tense during the three-day celebrations.

The first day of the celebrations include Rasme Ghusal, Chaddar Poshi, Dua (to start the Urs), Mehfil-i-Moshaira, and Qomi Mahfile Naat. Continuous rain in Kasur for the last 24 hours may change schedule.

The second day events comprise a contest of speeches among students of local schools and colleges on the topic ‘Role of saints in the formation of Islamic society in the subcontinent’. The Auqaf department has also announced that it will distribute prizes among the position-holders. There would also be poetry recital and the participants would present the poetry of Baba Bulleh Shah to pay him homage.

The third and the last day will have speeches by religious scholars. Mehfil-i-Sama would be organised on the last day of the Urs and continue till dawn after which the celebrations would conclude after dua at Fajr prayer.

The district police claimed to have made security arrangements and over two dozen pickets have been set up around the shrine to avert any untoward incident.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2020