Devotees continue to converge on Bhit Shah to pay homage to Shah Latif

HYDERABAD: Thousands of devotees flocked to the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai in Bhit Shah on Saturday, the second day of the annual Urs celebrations of the Sufi saint and poet.

The 280th Urs celebrations had kicked off on Friday, with devotees converging on the town from all over Sindh and other parts of the country.

At the annual Latif Literary Conference, writers, intellectuals, and researchers demanded that the Kalaam of Shah Latif be digitized so that his universal message could be conveyed to the world.

Caretaker Federal Minister for Education Madad Ali Sindhi said that the message of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai is in tune with the present era, but it is a pity that our new generation is less inclined towards it.

The students are ignorant of the thought and philosophy of Shah Latif, Baba Bulleh Shah, Baba Farid and other great poets of the country.

Famous writer Taj Joyo said that Mirza Qalich Beg and Dr Nabi Bakhsh Baloch had written complete dictionaries of Shah, but more research was needed. Dr Adal Soomro said in his article that many of Shah’s contemporary poets lost their divans, but Shah’s message would remain the message of all times.

The online Bhitaipedia was launched at the Latif Literary Conference by Abdul Majeed Bhurgari. Bhurgari, a researcher who developed the software, while giving a detailed briefing, said that all the magazines, researchers and poets compiled by Shah Latif from Risala had been kept online in text through Bhataipedia online.

Urdu, Punjabi, Persian, English, and other translations by various translators are available with each verse. Through artificial intelligence, Shah Sain’s magazine can be read in 130 major languages of the world with machine translation.

Bhataipedia also contains digital maps of places mentioned in poetry, while it has several other features, including audios and videos of various artists singing.