Graveyard at Sultanshahi not ready for Shab-e-Barat

Sultanshahi: With just 12 days remaining for Shab-e-Barat, the night in the month of Shaban which many Muslims revere as the night of forgiveness and visit graveyards, the Wakf Board is yet to begin cleaning work in Daira Hazrath Mir Mohammed Momin (graveyard) in Sultanshahi.  Every year the Wakf Board releases funds to clean the graveyard but this year, the board has not yet released money. With neglect, grass grows wild over the 18 acres and needs a clean up.

1. 1 lakh to visit Daira Mir Momim but the place is not ready
2. The Wakf Board has not released funds for the upkeep, there is no committee

The locals who started to repaint and spruce up the graveyards of their kin lamented that the Wakf Board has failed to maintain sufficient lights in the 400 year old graveyard. They demanded that the Wakf Board come up with the facilities before the Shab-e-Barat, as it would be difficult to people identify the graveyards and walk between them during the night hours. “There is no managing committee and also no facility from the Wakf Board to this graveyard in which about 1 lakh people visit on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat,” said Hamid Hussain Jaffery, president, Shia Youth Conference.

Hazrath Mir Mohammed Momin, Astrabadi was the architect of Hyderabad, but his grave yard remains neglected for years. “There is no proper light in grave yard  and one can see electrical polls bending almost 30 degrees and some of them remained in the position for the last 10 months and the bushes has grown around the graves, which makes it tough to identify graves,” added Jaffery.

BY Syed Mujtaba Hussain Abidi