HAUNTED PLACES OF PAKISTAN - TOP 6 MOST HAUNTED HAVELIS OF PAKISTAN

 

HAUNTED PLACES OF PAKISTAN - TOP 6 MOST HAUNTED HAVELIS OF PAKISTAN

INTRODUCTION:

Haveli means a big house where more than 50 people live. Some of the havelis in Pakistan were built before its creation. We are going to discuss the top 6 most haunted havelis of Pakistan, in sequence. The most haunted haveli will be placed at the first position.

1ST - HAVELI OF BUNDER ROAD SUKKUR

2ND - HAVELI MAHENDRA SINGH OLD LAHORE

3RD - VICTORIA GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL OLD LAHORE - NAU NEHAL SINGH HAVELI

4TH - A HAVELI IN BAHAWALPUR

5TH - KASHMIRIAN WALI HAVELI OF PEACOCKS IN LAHORE 

6TH - LAL HAVELI OF SHEIKH RASHEED IN RAWALPINDI

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DETAILS:

1ST - HAVELI OF BUNDER ROAD SUKKUR

You have already read this in the Top 12 most haunted places of Pakistan. TAP HERE

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2ND - HAVELI MAHENDRA SINGH OLD LAHORE

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3RD - VICTORIA GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL OLD LAHORE - NAU NEHAL SINGH HAVELI

You have already read in the top 9 most haunted places of Lahore City. TAP HERE

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4TH - A HAVELI IN BAHAWALPUR

An Encounter With Jinns Inside Bahwalpur’s Haunted Haveli

 June 26, 2020

 

It was a summer afternoon four years ago when my three cousins and I decided to visit a haveli about which we had heard a lot since our childhood. We live in Lahore but had gone to one of our uncles’ place in Bahawalpur to spend our summer vacation. My uncle and his children had always spoken about how that haveli in their neighbourhood was famous for some unusual occurrences that they had observed after midnight. Once they heard an unusual and indistinct song being played from the haveli in the middle of the night. When my uncle saw out of the window to find out if there was some wedding ceremony going on, he saw a bride standing on the haveli’s terrace.

He was shocked at the sight because the haveli had been empty ever since its owner had left the country a year ago after his failed attempts to rent it out. People would come and see it to rent it, but they would leave soon after as they would also experience such unusual happenings. The rumours about it being a den of jinns always turned the tenants away and when the owner could not manage to rent it out, he left the country leaving the haveli empty.

So one sunny afternoon in Bahawalpur, my cousins and I made a plan to go to the haveli to witness the spooky stuff we had heard about. We were always told by the elders that we should avoid going near the haveli’s gate and to not even look at it from the window at night. Little did they know that we had made up our mind to have an adventure of our lifetime.

Both my father and uncle were taking their afternoon nap and we knew they would not get up before two hours. The women of the house, my mother and two aunts, were also out and were not going to return anytime soon. So we thought it was a perfect opportunity to get into the haveli. We went to its gate which was of course locked. After looking around the haveli we found out a comparatively lower end of the wall which we could easily climb. The four of us boys got into the haveli.

Upon entering, we saw a huge lawn that had several big trees and well-kept plants. At the time I probably didn’t think about it, but now I often wonder as to how those plants could be so fresh despite the fact that there was no one to look after them for over a year. We were roaming around the lawn to see if we could find out something we can call ‘spooky’ or unusual, but we experienced nothing. Disappointed, we thought we would not get to have the adventure we planned. However, we kept moving ahead as the lawn was quite big. At the end of the lawn was a corridor which led to the inner part of the haveli.

The inner part was locked and we certainly did not intend to go there, but the corridor was a small area which was dark despite the daylight. It seemed scary at the first sight so we decided not to go inside it. But my youngest cousin Abdullah who was 15-year-old at the time ran inside the corridor all of a sudden, despite having agreed not to go inside. We were dumbfounded. “Has he lost it,” I thought, as I saw him run inside the dark corridor. As soon as he entered in, we started calling for him and asked him to come back at once as going inside was not part of the plan. But he did not respond. “Abdullah? Come back at once. We are going back now!”, we cried many times, but there was no word from Abdullah.

We then decided to go inside the corridor together so we can fetch Abdullah and run away. We were certainly looking to have an adventure, but this is not the kind we wanted. When we went inside, we heard the door behind us shut as if somebody had slammed it. The area was so dark we could not even see each other. We had however held each other’s hands so we tried to open the door, which we failed to do. We started beating the door asking for help, but it was certain that our voice won’t reach outside the haveli.

Abdullah, meanwhile, was nowhere to be found. We called his name many times, but he did not respond. After a while, we saw a woman standing right in front of us towards the other door of the corridor that led to the inner side of the haveli. The woman was wearing a while shalwar kameez and was looking at the floor. We cried at the top of our lungs. One of my cousins who was eldest managed to keep himself stable and said, “We apologise for coming in. We won’t do it again. Please bring back Abdullah and let us go.” Hearing him say this was even scary and I felt my heart coming to my mouth. After 2-3 minutes, the woman disappeared into the wall. We could not believe what we had just seen.

As we started knocking the outer door again to cry for help, a child appeared from a corner and started laughing. She appeared a girl about 8 or 9 year old. She looked at the door which we were trying to open and first laughed a little and then her laughter became harder and loud. By this time we were no longer in our senses as we had cried and shouted so much that we were in an unstable condition.

In about another two minutes, the outer door that we were trying to break suddenly opened and we saw Abdullah behind it. “Where did you all disappear? I was looking for you”, he said. We came out of the corridor at once and heaved a sigh of relief. Abdullah was also weeping out of fear, but our condition was worse as we had seen two jinns for the first time. We quickly made out way out of the haveli. Later, Abdullah said that he did not know how he went inside. He said that it felt like someone forced him inside the corridor and he could not resist them.

This certainly was an adventure of a lifetime and we had not thought that we would come out of it alive. The haveli in question still exists and remains empty till date.

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5TH - KASHMIRIAN WALI HAVELI OF PEACOCKS IN LAHORE 

The curious tale of peacocks and the cursed ‘haveli’ in Lahore

 

This is a story the late Sheikh Mubarak Ali - that great sage of the old walled city - narrated to me. But as it was incomplete and the ends did not meet, writing about it would have been unfair. On Friday my friend Sheero unlocked the mystery … finally.

Imagine a bizarre story of a haunted ‘haveli’ on which only peacocks roam. My weekly Sunday visits to the old walled city of Lahore invariably bring forth a tale or two, each stranger than the last. Almost 11 years ago as I turned from Bazaar Hakeeman onto Tehsil Bazaar, I stopped at the little shop of Sheikh Sahib. After a customary cup of tea, which over the years became almost a ‘compulsory’ routine, the sage said: “So you want a strange story? I will give you one that will keep you guessing for years.” He got up and stepped out of his shop. Pointing eastwards he said: “Walk along Tehsil Bazaar, take the first turn to the right, stop and look up and then knock on the door. That is where the story lies.”

So after I took my leave I went to the said place and looked up. From the rooftop on the third floor three peacocks were looking down, almost as if taunting me, with loud cries of pain. Gosh, this was scary. I knocked on the door and there was no reply. After a long wait a passerby stopped and started looking at me. He then said: “Are you crazy. This place is haunted. Anyone who lives here his children all die from a strange disease. The deaths have been terrible. See what happened to a family that owns this place.”

For a moment it made me think, but then my logical mind said to me that there is no such thing as being haunted. So I knocked at the door, each time banging harder. There was no response. The man in the street had left after shaking his head. After a minute or two an old woman passed by, stopped, and said: “No one will reply, just push the door and go in … and keep reciting the ‘kalima’”. The old woman left shaking her head. So after a few more knocks I pushed the huge wooden door and entered a house with almost all the furniture there but thickly dust-laden, almost an inch thick, as if for years no one had lived there.

As I roamed about the house, a scared uninvited guest, the peacocks were going wild on the roof, running back and forth. Suddenly a loud noise came forth as if the roof was caving in. The creak and falling bricks sound made me run for the main door. Once outside I stood there and waited. The peacocks had gone silent with a slight croaking sound as if they were mockingly laughing at me. That, then, was enough of a first visit.

It made sense to return to Sheikh Mubarak Ali, who by then had a naughty delightful look in his eyes. “Ho aye hoo” he tauntingly said and ordered me another cup of tea with the instruction to double the sugar in it. I sat down and asked about the story of the ‘Kashmirianwali haveli’. “Ah, so you have learnt that it belonged to a Kashmiri family.”

As Sheikh Sahib narrated the story and informed about the owners, my natural question was ‘who was the last of that family to live here’. “Mamma is what everyone called him. He was an agnostic and did not believe in belief or all this thing about being haunted,” is what Sheikh Sahib said. So that was all that I managed to get out of the great man who died almost four years ago.

Over time this house kept haunting my thoughts and every time I have been near Bazaar Hakeeman a visit to this place was a must stop. But never did I dare to enter. I made sure the peacocks are there, and asked about who lived there. Every time the answer is the same: “Nobody in his right mind would live there.”

Almost a year ago as we sat in a family gathering, mention was made of the late doctor who owned the place. His brothers were all highly educated and now are among the elite of Lahore. But none of them ever visits his ancestral house. In the conversation my wife mentioned “the poor unfortunate Mamma”. That alerted me and I started asking questions, with not a single satisfactory answer. It was as if some mystery had to be hidden.

On Friday as I sat chatting with my college-day buddy Sheero, who is also a Kashmiri and originally belongs to Bhati Gate, I mentioned the ‘haveli’ with peacocks. Sheero at once responded, almost unprompted: “Poor Mamma”. That set me off and my questions flew like never before. So came forth the missing link of the mystery ‘haveli’ with peacocks in Tehsil Bazaar.

Mamma refused to believe that their old house was haunted. The entire family moved out, scared of the consequences after a seer, let me add ‘allegedly’, was called who left screaming, and warning the entire ‘mohallah’ that the ‘jinn’ who possessed this ‘haveli’ had pledged to kill the offspring of anyone who lived in this place. So everyone left except Mamma and his seven sons.

The facts that follow I have personally checked from hospital records. All the seven sons of Mamma died, each after every Eid-i-Qurbani, in this ‘haveli’. It was a tragedy everyone in the walled city knows about. I checked the death record and timing from family members and each one has verified what I say.

On Saturday before writing this column I again went to the old ‘haveli’ and the peacocks still roam on the rooftops. As I watched from the ‘gali’ below they came to the ledge and as if taunting screamed. I left murmuring to myself: “Poor Mamma.”

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6TH - LAL HAVELI OF SHEIKH RASHEED IN RAWALPINDI

Tracing the history of Lal Haveli of Mr. Sheikh Rasheed in Rawalpindi

Once a symbol of love, Lal Haveli has now become a hub of politics in the garrison city, near synonymous with Awami Muslim League (AML) President Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

 

The haveli was built over a hundred years ago by Dhan Raj Sehgal for Budhan Bai, a Muslim dancing girl from Sialkot. The story goes that Sehgal, who was from a wealthy Hindu family in Jhelum, met Budhan Bai when he went to Sialkot for a wedding. He returned with her, and built her the Lal Haveli. Their relationship was famous in the city, and neither converted to the other’s religion. Sehgal also paid for the religious events arranged by Budhan Bai.

A typical Indian haveli, the building at one time was one of the best examples of Kashmiri woodwork – although that has faded with time.

It consists of two portions, one served as the main apartment used by men and a women’s chamber and courtyards in the back. Sehgal and Budhan Bai’s chambers were located on the upper storey, attached to verandas that open into Bohar Bazaar.

Now, the front portion, approximately five marlas only*, is owned by Sheikh Rashid, and the rest has been leased to families by the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB). The old sitting rooms have now been turned into political offices, and the sound of ringing telephones has replaced the music that played at parties at night.

The artwork on the walls has also been washed out, and although the floor of the main hall is still tiled, the rest has been cemented. “Budhan Bai left dancing after shifting into Lal Haveli. Dhan Raj Sehgal built a mosque for her, and a temple for himself. The temple is adjacent to Lal Haveli in Bohar Bazaar,” Sheikh Rashid told Dawn. He said Budhan Bai had been the richest woman in the city; she had owned the mansion and the only car in Rawalpindi.

“I met her when she was sitting on her terrace in the evening. She gave me my first cigarette; she used to smoke Three Castle cigarettes,” he recalled.

“Budhan Bai was a very honest woman. If she wanted, she would have earned money from selling the property. The court asked her to declare herself a Hindu and get ownership of the property after the departure of Dhan Raj Sehgal’s family to India, but she did not. She remained in the few rooms at the front and left the portion declared the evacuee trust’s property.”

At a time, Lal Haveli was also believed to be haunted by disembodied spirits, and people said whoever bought the house died soon after.

 

“Yes, there were stories in the past, but I have never seen such djinns or spirits. Maybe they run away after they see me,” Sheikh Rashid joked.

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https://www.dawn.com/news/1407314

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