Mor Moradi Graveyard, located in Gadap town, district Malir, Karachi, is an ancient heritage site of Sindh
This historic site is under threat in the name of so-called ‘development’ being carried out by Bahria Town
Farooq Sargani
Mor Moradi Graveyard, located in Gadap town, district Malir, Karachi, is an ancient cultural heritage site of Sindh, however this historic site is under threat in the name of ‘development’ being carried out by Bahria Town. The historic graveyard is gradually being destroyed and soon will be erased if the concerned authorities of Sindh government’s Antiquities Department did not take any action.
According to the historians, this graveyard is centuries old. The communities living in its periphery are Chhutta, Burfat, Burira, Gondar, Qureshi, and Kalmatis. All the communities speak Sindhi and Balochi languages. The Mor Moradi Graveyard was surrounded by the agricultural land and belonged to the Gondar community people. Later, owing to the unchecked greed of the Bahria Town Authority, this tribe was forced to sell its land at cheaper rates. And because of that, the very center of the area, which was the Mor Moradi graveyard, has now come under the threat of destruction.
The Bahria Town authority is trying to erase this very historical place in order to grab more land. When I visited this place a couple of days back, I saw that the brokers had sold the land of the indigenous people, to the Bahria town administration, and the trees were cut down.
In Qureshi Village of “Deh” Mole, I found an indigenous person, Abdul Ghani Qureshi, who told that the land survey of Gondars is centuries old, where there are the gardens of cranberry and lemon, and natural greenery, but hundreds of trees were ruined by Bahria town administration.
Qureshi, while sharing the sad story of the Mor Moradi Graveyard, said, “Earlier, Shah Latif Jo Taqyo, a historic site, was acquired by Bahria, and the bathrooms were built. This whole region has a long history of ancient sites, from the 11th century onwards, with people still living there.”
An eminent historian and researcher, Late Gul Hassan Kalmati, had claimed that the stone carving style of graves is a formidable and artistic work of engineers and geographers found in Mor Moradi graveyard.
There are so many ancient graveyards in Malir, but all are at risk. In comparison to Chowkhandi graveyard, the Mor Moradi Graveyard seems older because of its stone carving techniques, adopted in the Summa Dynasty (1351-1524). On the contrary, Chawkhandi was built in a later period or during the Mughal dynasty.
Gul Hassan Kalmati mostly discovered all the graveyards of Malir mentioned in his book “Karachi, The Glory of East.” According to him, this technique, generated from Rome, and later spread to Iran, and then entered Sindh and Balochistan.
Due to the so-called development of Bahria Town, this ancient cultural heritage site is feared to be erased soon. The Bahria Expansion plans also pose threat to the Khirthar National Park. This whole region of Malir is part of green belt, but in the name of development, Bahria administration is bent on cutting down the trees, and destroying heritage sites.
An immediate action is needed to stop further so-called development of Bahria town, and saving the archaeological sites, wildlife and flora and fauna of the region.
Read: Mystery Cup-Marks on Babro Hill in Maher Valley of Malir, Sindh
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Farooq Sargani is the student of History at Karachi University, Sindh
