SEHWAN, Sept 2: About 20 people have died because of severe heat and various incidents as festivities continued on the second day of Urs celebrations of Qalandar Lal Shahbaz on Sunday.

Policemen were seen at scattered places trying to control traffic but it was a mess almost the whole day. The situation improved in the night at the northern side of the town when most of the devotees, hailing from the Punjab, left for home.

Different rituals by different sects of the Qalandar were observed on the second day, the three most prominent being the Mehndi, the Matam or the mourning procession and the ritual of making mureeds.

MEHNDI: Sufis believe that life separates one from the Beloved and death is nothing but a gateway to union with God Almighty. That is why the death of a Sufi is celebrated, not mourned and his death anniversary is called ‘Urs’, an Arabic word for marriage.

No sub-continental marriage is complete without Mehndi and the same is the case with the wedding ritual of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar. From the dancing girls of Lahore to the saffron-clad Sufis of Sindh, several groups of pilgrims organised the Qlandar Mehendi ritual at different spots.

At one place, musicians with dhols and harmonium took out a small mehndi gathering from their houses singing wedding songs. The mehndi was placed on golden trays filled and a red dupatta was held over an old woman. The ritual observed was organised by Hindu devotees of the saint.

MOURNING: Groups of people visited the shrine of the saint throughout the day chanting ‘Husseni, Lal Qalandar’. They held the Matam ritual inside the shrine where young bare-chested men slashed their backs with daggers.