Indian Religious Workers Claim Shrine Apparition
[Original headline: HOUSE OF 'MIRACLES']
Apparition at saint's shrine
[AP] -- Thousands of pilgrims thronged to the shrine of an Islamic mystic saint in northwestern India today, after reports that an apparition had appeared on the dome of the 800-year old shrine.
Police said more than 50,000 have visited the shrine of the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in Rajasthan state since Thursday, after religious workers said they had seen an image on its dome.
The shrine is in Ajmer, 125km southwest of Jaipur, the state capital. Shrine workers said they first saw the images of two bearded men on the central dome on Wednesday evening.
Syed Irfan Usmani, a shrine worker, said one of the bearded men appeared to be Khwaja, "who made his appearance to spread the message of goodwill and peace after the recent carnage in Gujarat".
Hindu-Muslim riots in neighbouring Gujarat state have claimed the lives of more than 720 people, mostly Muslims, in the last month.
In this South Asian nation of more than 1 billion people, poverty and illiteracy combine to make people vulnerable to superstition and rumour.
Five years ago, millions of Hindus thronged to hundreds of temples around the country when there were reports that milk was flowing from statues of Hindu's elephant god, Ganesha. They swore they saw the milk, but psychologists dismissed the phenomenon as mass hysteria.
Sarwar Chisty, a member of the committee that manages the shrine, said he had filmed the apparition with a video camera and that it appeared clearly on the screen. One of the bearded men, he said, is believed to be Khwaja, who is said to have come to Ajmer from Persia in 1192.
More than 50,000 people have visited the shrine and additional police were being deployed to prevent a stampede, said Saurab Shrivastav, police superintendent of Ajmer.
A television station reported that the shrine dome had been painted recently and the vision was due to light reflecting off shiny paint.
Some local residents dismissed the phenomenon as an invention of the shrine workers, known as "khadims", to draw more pilgrims to the site.
"It appears to be a gimmick by the khadims to attract pilgrims whose numbers have fallen drastically after recent riots in Gujarat," said Vivek Munot, who owns a hardware store near the shrine.
Khadims make their money from pilgrims by acting as tour guides and getting the pilgrims to make donations.
Ajmer is a popular pilgrimage spot for both Muslims and Hindus. According to legend, those who pray at the saint's tomb and tie a red thread on its marble lattice screens will have their wishes granted.
• Story originally published by:
news.com.au / Australia - Mar 30.02
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