KARACHI: Authorities in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province are carrying out development work to facilitate Hindu pilgrims who visit the historic Hinglaj Mata temple in significantly large numbers every year.
“Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal has ordered to expedite work on several projects to ensure smooth journey of pilgrims to the temple that is considered as one of the most sacred places in Hindu religion,” Balochistan’s Parliamentary Secretary for Minority Affairs Danish Kumar told Arab News on Saturday.
Every year in April, thousands of Pakistani Hindus flock to the cave temple of Hinglaj Mata in what is considered the largest Hindu pilgrimage in the country.
The festival continues for four days in which high priests beseech Hindu deities to accept the offerings of their devotees and bestow peace and prosperity on them.
According to Hindu mythology, Lord Vishnu cut up the dead body of Sati into 50 pieces, which fell to the earth. Her head, it is believed, fell at Hinglaj and it has since been the site for a revered pilgrimage.
Pilgrims arrive from all over Pakistan, adorned in decorative red-and-gold headscarves and saffron headbands to mark the holy colors of Hinglaj Mata.
The Hinglaj Yatra is “as significant to Hindus as Hajj is important to Muslims,” Maharaj Gopal, a pundit in traditional orange robes, told Arab News this April.
Pesumal Arlani, General Secretary of the Hinglaj Mata Committee that launched the four-day festival in 1988, told Arab News the number of pilgrims was increasing each year due to better arrangements and the construction of the Makran Coastal Highway, a 653-kilometer national highway that extends along Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coast from Karachi in Sindh province to Gwadar on the top of Balochistan.
Balochistan has long been plagued by violence and a stubborn insurgency, with several separatist groups and Islamist militants operating in a region that boasts vast gas and mineral resources.
Security has improved considerably across much of Pakistan in recent years but Balochistan is still plagued by sporadic attacks. In April, gunmen pulled 14 members of the Pakistani armed forces off buses and shot them dead in the town of Ormara.
Most pilgrims come from the southern Sindh province where a majority of Pakistan’s tiny Hindu minority of around 3 million people lives. A few hundred also visit from India, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and other countries, pundit Gopal said. “When they go back, they are considered saints due to the importance of this pilgrimage.”
Devotees from Pakistan’s arch-rival and neighboring India, a Hindu majority nation, too want to visit but find it hard to get visas.
“Strained relation is a big hurdle,” said Preeti Sompura, a Mumbai-based journalist associated with India TV. “If relations between the two neighbors normalize it will allow people from India to go to Pakistan for this important pilgrimage.”
In the past, many prominent Indians, including former external affairs minister, Jaswant Singh, have visited Hinglaj for the pilgrimage. A large number of Muslims also visit each year.
Kumar said the Balochistan government was committed to making it one of the biggest sites of religious tourism. He added that the chief minister ordered the completion of work to ensure smooth pilgrimage in April 2020 in a recent meeting with the temple committee.
“Rs250 million have been allocated for the provision of basic facilities. Another Rs50million will be spent on constructing toilets,” Kumar said, adding that work on expanding a 14-kilometer-long road, connecting the coastal highway to the temple, was also underway.
Apart from that, the provincial administration was also building water tankers in the area.
“We have already established a dispensary. Now we are working on a parking area which will accommodate thousands of vehicles. Besides, a mega solar project is also underway,” Kumar informed.
Other than the absence of such basic necessities, he pointed out that security perception of the area was also a problem.
“We are countering negative propaganda about the security environment. Last month, around 100 American Hindus visited the temple. They were quite satisfied with the security,” he said.
Kumar also added that more delegations from Europe were likely to arrive soon and perform their pilgrimage.
“With basic facilities and better security perception, the area will soon be one of the world’s major places of religious tourism,” he continued.
Development work underway to draw pilgrims to southern Pakistan temple
Development work underway to draw pilgrims to southern Pakistan temple

- Balochistan’s Hinglaj Mata temple is a popular site of Hindu pilgrimage
- Chief Minister Jam Kamal recently ordered completion of all projects before April to ensure smooth pilgrimage next year