Punnu Fort and Koh-i-Murad Turbat
Posted Jan 21st, 2009 at 08:21 PM by thejoke
[SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman]It was time to meet another friend who I had got to know online through a Baloch forum, Rizwan. We were sat with a group of Saeed’s friends drinking tea when Rizwan arrived. Rizwan shook hands with those present and sat down. What surprised me was when Rizwan looked to his right and greeted each individual present asking how they were etc. I had not seen this in the other ethnic groups in Pakistan. I wonder if this same manner would be used if there were more than fifty people present?
Rizwan was not happy with the hotel I was staying at and decided I should stay with him. I met Rizwan’s father who was a doctor and who had travelled to Europe and we ended up debating regional politics and issues, international politics and issues and identity. I had to refrain on some of my views as I could be a little blunt and I did not want to appear disrespectful. At night I was happy that I had more comfortable surroundings. It would enable me to make up for last night.
As I was at Rizwan’s house the following morning bad news broke through. Two simultaneous bomb blasts in Lahore had killed up to 40 people and injured over a 100. Footage was released showing one to be the work of a suicide bomber who had rammed into the gate of the FIA building. Lahore was probably just under 2 days travel from here by public transport.
We decided to visit Punnu’s fort which may have been up to 8000 years old. Punnu was a local prince who was port of the Sassi Punnu romance which was famous in Sindh and Mekran. The fort was like a mud peak surrounded by an oasis of fields and palm trees. The fort looked like it would have been small and possibly made of mud. There were vantage points where one could see quite a distance across the Turbat plains to the Mekran mountain ranges. Archaeologists had discovered bones and graves here.
It was quite a hot day and we had run out of water. Luckily we managed to spot a house and get some cool refreshing water. We passed the Kech River, a tributary of the Dasht River in Iran. Its blue-green water contrasted beautifully with the sandy brown landscape. Some of the bridges crossing the river had been damaged because of the summer 2007 floods. Heavy rain and a dam bursting caused chaos. The water had risen quite high engulfing some of the house here too.
Next on the list was Koh-I-Murad, the mountain of desire, a shrine of the Zikri community. Zikri’s are an off-shoot of Islam found predominantly in the Mekran and whose followers prefer to perform Zikr, remembrance of Allah. Zikris do not perform the prescribed 5 times a day prayers and the Hajj. In place of prayer they form the Zikr and instead of Hajj they visit the Koh-I-Murad on the 27th night of Ramadan.
Zikris believe in Syed Muhammad Jaunpuri who lived from 1443 to 1504 and claimed to be the Mehdi, a Muslim leader who would come towards the end of time. Zikri’s have long been criticised and many scholars from the Jamat Islami and Jamiat Ulema Islami have demanded they are labelled non-Muslim and their gatherings on the 27th night of Ramadan be stopped. Both parties have made gains in Balochistan in the last 10 years but most of it in the northern belt which is ethnic Pashtun. The Zikri’s have been under considerable pressure especially since the Iranian Revolution, the Taliban and increase in Afghan militancy and President Zia’s Islamisation programme in Pakistan
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Rizwan was not happy with the hotel I was staying at and decided I should stay with him. I met Rizwan’s father who was a doctor and who had travelled to Europe and we ended up debating regional politics and issues, international politics and issues and identity. I had to refrain on some of my views as I could be a little blunt and I did not want to appear disrespectful. At night I was happy that I had more comfortable surroundings. It would enable me to make up for last night.
As I was at Rizwan’s house the following morning bad news broke through. Two simultaneous bomb blasts in Lahore had killed up to 40 people and injured over a 100. Footage was released showing one to be the work of a suicide bomber who had rammed into the gate of the FIA building. Lahore was probably just under 2 days travel from here by public transport.
We decided to visit Punnu’s fort which may have been up to 8000 years old. Punnu was a local prince who was port of the Sassi Punnu romance which was famous in Sindh and Mekran. The fort was like a mud peak surrounded by an oasis of fields and palm trees. The fort looked like it would have been small and possibly made of mud. There were vantage points where one could see quite a distance across the Turbat plains to the Mekran mountain ranges. Archaeologists had discovered bones and graves here.
It was quite a hot day and we had run out of water. Luckily we managed to spot a house and get some cool refreshing water. We passed the Kech River, a tributary of the Dasht River in Iran. Its blue-green water contrasted beautifully with the sandy brown landscape. Some of the bridges crossing the river had been damaged because of the summer 2007 floods. Heavy rain and a dam bursting caused chaos. The water had risen quite high engulfing some of the house here too.
Next on the list was Koh-I-Murad, the mountain of desire, a shrine of the Zikri community. Zikri’s are an off-shoot of Islam found predominantly in the Mekran and whose followers prefer to perform Zikr, remembrance of Allah. Zikris do not perform the prescribed 5 times a day prayers and the Hajj. In place of prayer they form the Zikr and instead of Hajj they visit the Koh-I-Murad on the 27th night of Ramadan.
Zikris believe in Syed Muhammad Jaunpuri who lived from 1443 to 1504 and claimed to be the Mehdi, a Muslim leader who would come towards the end of time. Zikri’s have long been criticised and many scholars from the Jamat Islami and Jamiat Ulema Islami have demanded they are labelled non-Muslim and their gatherings on the 27th night of Ramadan be stopped. Both parties have made gains in Balochistan in the last 10 years but most of it in the northern belt which is ethnic Pashtun. The Zikri’s have been under considerable pressure especially since the Iranian Revolution, the Taliban and increase in Afghan militancy and President Zia’s Islamisation programme in Pakistan
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