BHIT SHAH: The lure of the yearly Urs of Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai is physically powerful enough to attract people from as far as Berlin, Germany.
A well-known German author and follower of Sufism, Peter Pannke, is amongst the people who arrived in Bhit Shah on Tuesday sunset for the 267th Urs celebrations, that was inaugurated by the Sindh Auqaf Minister Abdul Haseeb.
Pannke, 64, was dressed in a black shalwar kameez. “I was the first someone to invite the singer Faqirs of the shrine to Berlin in 1997. It was the opening time they travelled outside of Pakistan and we had a show comparable to Bhit Shah’s on a Friday nighttime which was attended by 700 people. The Faqirs sang for entire night,” he recalled.
Pannke is at this time writing a book titled “Saints and Singers,” and will attend the second Karachi prose Festival slated for February 5 and 7. He would be speaking on Sufism along with extra writers Jurgen Wasim Frembgen and Michel Boivin at the festival.
He has deliberate sinology, Indology and proportional religions. He has made a name for himself as a writer, composer, festival director and presenter with an output of several programmes directing his own globe music shows.
His wife Lisa said that the shrine is an nice-looking place with a long tradition. “You can see how strong Bhitai’s attraction is still today that he attracts citizens even from Berlin,” she said.
Besides this German couple, the devotees have arrived at the shrine for the Urs. For the elderly Mohammad Hassan Jafri it is very central to come pay his respects to his Murshid – Shah Latif – all
the way from Shikarpur.
“I have to be here at all costs,” said Jafri while donation lunger [food] to this reporter. He has brought with him, food and other necessary items to stay in the shrine’s square for three days.
Men, women and brood excitedly watch those dancing on the drumbeats. Devotees throng to the
shrine in large number to offer fateha at the grave of Shah Latif. Many sat in front of the singer Faqirs as they recited his verses.
But more than it were people who gathered around a man who danced with ghungroos around his ankles while balancing a pitcher filled with water on his head.
Like every year, the municipality wore a festive look with shops selling food and dry fruits with colourful decorations. Even the main road foremost to the shrine had been cleared and washed.
