Lahore will observe a public holiday on Tuesday in connection with the annual Urs of Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh, with thousands of devotees expected to attend the three-day celebrations at Data Darbar.
The 983rd annual Urs celebrations were formally inaugurated on Sunday by Deputy Prime Minister Senator Ishaq Dar, who performed the traditional chadar-laying ceremony and inaugurated the milk sabeel at Data Darbar.
The three-day event is observed each year by thousands of devotees.
Hazrat Ali Hajveri, widely known as Data Ganj Bakhsh, was an 11th-century Persian Sufi scholar born in Ghazni, Afghanistan, during the Ghaznavid era.
He later settled in Lahore, where he preached the values of Sufism, brotherhood and spiritual harmony until his death.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of devotees, religious scholars and Sufi followers gather at Data Darbar, regarded as the largest Sufi shrine in South Asia, to participate in the Urs and pay homage to the revered saint.
