Hinglaj mata festival: Hindu devotees from India, Pakistan attend famous fair in Balochistan after two-year hiatus

PTI

Karachi, May 1

The centuries-old annual Hinglaj Mata festival resumed after a break of two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province and was attended by devotees from India and other countries.

The ancient temple located in the Kund Malir area of Lasbela district in Balochistan is considered one of the largest pilgrimage sites in Hindu civilisation. It is also one of the five ancient Hindu temples across the world.

“We saw a big rush of Hindu pilgrims for the festival last year and this year as well, as it could not be held for two years due to the Covid pandemic,” said Balochistan Senator Danesh Kumar.

Hundreds of Hindus also come from abroad, some from India for the 3-day religious festival, he said.

“The historic temple has now become easily accessible after it was connected with urban Pakistan through the Makran Coastal Highway. Earlier, it used to be very difficult for devotees to reach the temple as it is in the foothills of the Kirthar mountain range,” he said.

Many of the devotees prefer to walk barefoot up the mountains to the temple as they believe that the more pain they would go through to reach the temple, the better they would get from the “goddess of goodness”, said Kumar.

He further said that the Balochistan government had deputed at least 1,000 security police personnel, levies and frontier corps to provide security to the pilgrims for the festival in the restive province which ended on Monday.

Balochistan’s Minorities Minister, Khalil George told the media that the government spent Rs.300 million on the provision of all basic facilities at the Hinglaj Mata temple. “CCTV cameras were also installed at the temple,” said George.