Tension claims mela that survived Partition

Baba Chamliyal’s shrine is hardly 500 metres away from the zero line at the border. It’s within clear reach of troops on either si...

Baba Chamliyal’s shrine is hardly 500 metres away from the zero line at the border. It’s within clear reach of troops on either side. So this year no devotee is risking his life to celebrate the annual Chamliyal Mela on Thursday.

This would be the first time since 1947 that Pakistan will send no chaddar for the shrine. On the Indian side, no shakkar-sharbat would be supplied either.

Indian devotees will pray from a distance. Their Pakistani counterparts, however, won’t be as lucky. They won’t be able to make it to the shrine’s replica near the Saidanwali post in Pakistan because it’s beyond ‘‘safe point’’.

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In India, the BSF too won’t allow any civilian to move beyond Dagh village, situated 1.5 km short of the shrine. ‘‘We will not encourage people to move beyond Dagh,’’ a senior BSF officer said, because Pakistani troops have been shelling the area over the last few days.

Tension between the countries has never affected the mela earlier. Every year, the Pakistani Rangers would send the chaddar and the BSF would supply shakkar-sharbat in tractor trolleys for devotees from both sides.

Chamliyal Baba, whose name was Dalip Singh Manhas, is revered on either side of the border. In Pakistan, the mela continues for a week, and here it is celebrated on the third Thursday of June.

The Baba, a resident of Chamliyal village — now in Pakistan — was buried outside the village. After the shrine came up, the shakkar-sharbat distributed there became popular for its curative properties. So people from Pakistan continued to visit the shrine after partition.

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Till the 1965 India-Pakistan war, the annual event went off without a hitch. The next year, however, Pakistani devotees had to wait at the zero line for the shakkar-sharbat. After the 1971 war, Pakistan Rangers refused to allow devotees to move beyond the protection bund. Finally, the devotees built a replica to celebrate the mela.