Feeding marsh crocodiles at Sufi Shrine, Karachi

Feeding marsh crocodiles at Sufi Shrine, Karachi
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

Date: 3rd June, 2007.

This is Sheedi, or black man, standing among the most dangerous crocodiles on Earth: Marsh crocodiles from River Nile. No one knows how they ended up here, thousands of miles from their original place, in the barren of Karachi at a Sufi Shrine near Karachi (now Manghopir, as this place is called, is part of Karachi due to horizontal expansion of the city).

The legend is that these crocodiles are actually lice of the Saint, who threw them into this spring. And they became crocodiles!

Baba Alam Shah Bukhari, Karachi

Baba Alam Shah Bukhari, Karachi
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

This Mazar was something of an icon of that place: Muhammad Ali Jinnah Road, Karachi. It is still there but I am told - and sadly so - that this old building has now been demolished to make way for the new one. How sick is that. And why no authority stops such violation of historical structures is beyond my comprehension. It is understandable that the rise in Sufi version of Islam has caused jam-packed Mazars, but it makes no sense to me that you start pulling down structure after structure.

But this is not new. We have seen this happen across Pakistan. Recent examples include Red Mazar of Sehwan Sharif (Lal Shahbaz Qalandar). Now, a bland, blue Mazar stands in its place, a bad copy of that brilliant Mazar Sharif in Iraq. Why cannot we continue Sufi Islam with historical heritage? How many more Mazars will we allow to be demolished?

Answers?