Police remove stalls of Jhang Mela Sang

Security threats

JHANG: Police have removed all booths and stalls established for observing the celebrations of traditional festival ‘Jhang Mela Sang’ here.

According to details, the festival is celebrated every year before the harvesting of wheat crop to commemorate Muslim Saint Syed Ahmed Sultan alias Hazrat Sakhi Sarwar (RA).

Although Hazrat Sakhi Sarwar (RA) was a Muslim Sufi Saint yet his followers and devotees also belong to other religions. The annual Urs of Hazrat Sakhi Sarwar (RA) is celebrated at his shrine situated at Dera Ghazi Khan. As per tradition, his followers start traveling in groups called ‘Sangee’ from various regions of the country to attend the Urs celebrations at the shrine.

The followers during their voyage to the shrine of Hazrat Sakhi Sarwar (RA) keep celebrate the festivities during their transit at various localities on the way to the shrine. Being midway, Jhang has the honour to host the festival for a week where a special feast known as ‘Choori’ is served as well as distributed to the visitors.

A mini fair, Jhang Mela Sang, is celebrated for a week till departure of the devotees to their destination. During these days, various stalls of food, toys, pottery, cloths and other commodities of daily use items are established to attract the visitors.

However, when the rituals of the festival began on Sunday, local police headed by Kotwali police SHO rushed to the site and removed the stalls established in connection with the Jhang Mela Sang and deployed cops to ensure complete shutdown of the festival.

When contacted, the Jhang police spokesman said that due to the recent wave of terrorism and security threats, huge public gatherings at open places could not be allowed to safeguard the lives of innocent people.