KARACHI: Who doesn’t know the ‘Saviour of Karachi’, Baba Abdullah Shah Ghazi, whose shrine at Clifton is known to protect this city from natural calamities like tsunamis and floods, but this city also has so many other shrines that people may not know of.

You see different colour bunting and banners dominated mostly by green. Then the shops selling the chadors and flowers along with the food vendors come into view along with the green domes. And finally the rest of the things which, unfortunately, also come with the territory, the beggars and drug addicts lying around.

“People come here looking for hope and yet we also find so many here who have given up on life and are leading a hopeless existences depending on the dole and charity of others,” says Zahid Shah, a visitor to the Ghaib Shah shrine at Keamari.

On the outside steps of the shrine sits this man who came to Karachi from Bangladesh in search of a livelihood and settled here after marrying a local, who recently passed away. “Now he sits here the entire time. He is homeless and his children live with him here on the footpath. They survive on the free food or langar distributed here by many devotees,” says Mr Shah.

Gulzar Bibi, an elderly woman at the shrine, says she comes here often after Baba Ghaib Shah made her daughter better. “She was completely crazy and often violent. I couldn’t even help her as she would push away anyone who even touched her with such force. But after coming here, I found myself gaining strength to at least hold her down until I cleaned her up and combed her hair. Then I brought her here along with me there is a big improvement in her now,” the mother shares with Dawn.

Hidden by the shops in the narrow lanes of Jodia Bazaar is the Hazrat Syed Nur Shah Ghazi shrine or ‘Achhee Qabr’.

Nearby are located the Amna Bibi Maryam shrine and the Yusuf Shah shrine at Manora. The people there named famous sports personalities and showbiz people who frequent these mazaars and believe that they owe their popularity and success due to the blessings of the saints buried there.

At the tiny Hazrat Syed Nur Shah Ghazi shrine, also known as ‘Achhee Qabr’, hidden in the narrow winding lanes of Jodia Bazaar, people buy roti and kebab or biryani from the nearby vendors to feed beggars. “Saints normally isolate themselves from the world to go meditate somewhere far away from the population. But this baba used to sit right here, quietly praying. Some people thought him to be a saint during his life only and when he passed away, they buried him right here and turned the place into a small shrine,” says an area resident, Mohammad Omar. “Now others come here with wishes. If their wish comes true, they renovate the place according to how much they can afford,” he adds.

The Ronak Ali Shah shrine under the Fatima Jinnah Bridge.

Another ‘baba’ whom people remember and have built a shrine for next to the railway track off Kala Pul is Baba Faiz-i-Alam Sakhi Sultan Shah Bukhari. It is said that during the late 1970s, he used to sit right there by the train tracks and meditate. If anyone tried approaching him, he would politely ask them to leave him alone.

Hidden among the sports shops on main M.A. Jinnah Road near Light House is the Hazrat Pir Bachal Shah shrine, which is more popularly known as the Mastaan Shah shrine. According to shop owners in the area, the shrine is around 150 years old. “A faithful devotee or mureed named Aman used to keep renovating the place until a few years ago, when he stopped coming. We think he passed away as he couldn’t have just lost faith. He would sit here for hours after rubbing his forehead on the entrance floor,” recalls a shopkeeper.

A devotee offering fateha outside the shrine of Hazrat Pir Bachal Shah near Lighthouse.

One shrine that simply disappeared from view a few years ago as the Fatima Jinnah Bridge was built above it is the Ronak Ali Shah shrine surrounded by car garages, workshops, driving schools, barbershops, etc., under the bridge. Still, those who know about it come there to pray and offer fateha.

The way leading to the Ghaib Shah shrine at Keamari.

Similarly, there are the Misri Shah shrine in Defence Phase 6, the Dargah Hazrat Nur Ali Shah on Jahangir Road near Teen Hatti, the Pir Mehtab Shah shrine near Garden East, the Ghaar Waale Baba shrine in Golimar, the shrine of Hazrat Bismillah Shah Bukhari on Kidney Hill, off Amir Khusro Road, the shrine of Syed Mahmood Shah Bukhari in Chanesar Goth and so many others. Some people believe that the saints buried at Eidgah, Garden, Teen Hatti and Kala Pul were brothers. But of course, there is no way of verifying such information. The bottom line is what one devotee who frequents many of these places says, “Karachi is in good hands. This city is blessed with so many saints buried here.”

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2015

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