By IANS,
Jammu : Pakistani Rangers will pay obeisance at the shrine of Hindu saint Baba Chamliyal here Thursday despite the chill in relations between the two neighbouring countries post 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
Doubts were put to rest about the participation of Pakistani Rangers in the annual one-day event when the officials of the Border Security Force (BSF) received a communication that their counterparts would be attending this year’s Chamliyal fair — annually held in the Ramgarh sector of Vijaypur area in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Pakistani Rangers bring chadar for the shrine, close to the Indo-Pak border, every year.
On every last Thursday of June, a fair is organised at Chamliyal, a village named after the hermit who had the magical powers to cure diseases. He was envied and murdered by those jealous of him.
His real name was Daleep Singh Manhas. A shrine has been built where he was murdered and the soil where his blood flowed is known to cure skin diseases if applied to the body.
Baba Chamliyal has devotees on both sides of the border. Thousands of devotees throng from various states, including Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, while thousands others gather from the other side of the border.
They receive shakkar (soil) and sharbat (water from a well) to make a paste to apply to the body for curing skin diseases.
“This year, there is going to be a huge rush of devotees, and we are particularly pleased that Pakistani Rangers would be maintaining the tradition of joining the festival,” a BSF official said.