MULTAN      -         Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday inaugurated the 706th annual Urs of great Sufi saint Hazrat Shah Rukn-e-Alam by performing bathing ceremony of the grave. The three-day Urs celebrations will continue till January 3, which is being attended by thousands of devotees from across the country and abroad. Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who is the caretaker of the shrine of the great saint, performed ghosal of the grave with rosewater. Later, he addressed a gathering of the devotees at the Sufi shrine. On the third day of the Urs, a conference will be held to be addressed by prominent scholars and the Urs will end with concluding prayers. The local authorities have stepped up security for the Urs. According to officials, the annual Urs attracts over 100,000 devotees of the shrine mostly from Sindh and southern districts of Punjab.

Hazarat Shah Rukn-ud-din Alam Abul Fateh, commonly known as Shah Rukn-e-Alam Suhrawadi, was the grandson of Hazrat Ghous Bahauddin Zakariya. His forefathers had arrived from the holy city of Makkah to Multan.