Pak devotees gather at Dargah of Hazrat Imam Mashhad Ali

Patiala, Mar 29 (UNI) Large number of devotees, many of them from Pakistan, today gathered at the Dargah of Hazrat Imam Mashhad Ali at Samana, 30 km from here, to commemorate the last day of Muharram.

Hazrat Mashhad Ali, the 10th descendent of Prophet Mohammad, is believed to have come to India during one of the early invasions from the West Asia.

According to legends, the shrine is visited by a tiger every Thursday night to worship the saint at the 1200-year-old Dargah where men and women observed the closing day of Muharram by singing and beating their chest.

The Pakistani devotees wanted that the Government of India should relax visa restrictions so that followers from across the border can come and offer prayers at the mausoleum, believed to be the biggest and the oldest in the continent.

''In the whole of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan there is no bigger Dargah than this. We request the Government of India to soften its stand on visa restrictions so that people can come here,'' said Tahir Hussein Rizvi, a devotee from Lahore.

''The Dargah is a centre of religious belief for people of different faiths. After the Partition when a large section of the Muslim population migrated to Pakistan from the area, the Hindus and Sikhs took up its responsibility,'' said Dr Nashir Naqvi, Professor Punjabi University.

UNI