Fasting for 38 days, three of a family die at Ajmer dargah
DNA Correspondent, Updated: October 13, 2010 16:30 IST

Jaipur: Faith can move mountains; but it can also kill you. When Mohammed Mustafa Sheikh, a retired officer in merchant navy, moved to Ajmer in hope of divine intervention to resolve his family troubles, he did not realise that he would paying for his devotion in blood.

Three of his children Maiyasar (22) Nausher (17) and Mohammad Salaam (14) died inside the famous Shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti on Monday. They had been fasting for over a month with their parents and their siblings at the dargah.

Nausher went down first, vomiting in chronic bouts before collapsing on the ground. Other pilgrims rushed to help. Even as he was being attended to, his siblings Salaam and Maiyasar, also started spitting out gastric juices. There was panic in the dargah and people screamed for help. The three children were taken to the JLN Hospital where they were declared dead.

Ahamed Raza, Nazim of Dargah Committee, said that Mustafa lived in Allahabad with his wife Munni Begum and the children. "Some years ago there were disputes in the Sheikh family; Mustafa took advice of a sage in Allahabad and arrived in Ajmer with family in search of peace two years ago," Nazim told DNA.

Later, acting on the advice of a sage in Allahabad, Mustafa decided to sit on a fast with family for 60 days at the dargah. That was 38 days ago. "The family was staying at a guesthouse near Dargah Bazaar; for the last 38 days they were on fast and would come for prayers at the shrine everyday. Nobody knew they were fasting so long," Nazim said.

The family's rare display of unshakable faith ended up in a tragedy with the death of three children. But, even after the untimely demise of his children, Mustafa and his family are bent on completing the ritual they had initiated.

Police officials who rushed all family members of Mustafa including his three grandchildren to the JLN Hospital for immediate medical attention said that the members were trying to escape from the hospital to return for the fasting. "Several times the family detached their arms from their drip and tried to flee from the hospital," said a police official.