http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-ART-028-2011
"There are very strange individuals in Pakistan associated with a Shrine of Pir Shah Daula in Gujrat, a saint of the Suhrawardi School of thought. During the reign of Emperor Aurangzeb, Shah Daula in Gujrat, is said to have the power to punish disobedient parents in the shape of children with small heads (Micro encephalic Children). These children are the property of the Shrines in different parts of the country and are called "Rats of Shah Daula".
Scores of worshippers and followers of Pir Daula Shah especially barren women, who beg for children, come to the saint invoking his blessings for the fulfilment of their wishes. The first born, usually with a very small head, is called the "mouse of Shah Daula" and is offered to work as a servant at the shrine. Subsequent births produce normal children.
According to a centuries-old tradition and the follower's belief, barren women who worship at the shrine of the Sufi saint Shah Daula, will become fertile. But unless they donate their first-born child to the shrine as an oblate, all their subsequent children will be born disabled.
Claims are made that the tradition has been used as the foundation for a trade in the donated children, who are deliberately disfigured and sold to professional beggars by the shrine's guardians, although the shrine is now controlled by the government of Pakistan.
It has been claimed that the defacement are caused by a genetic abnormality, but studies show that the children are unrelated to each other. There may be as many as 20,000 of these people, most in the Punjab province & the city of Gujrat."
"There are very strange individuals in Pakistan associated with a Shrine of Pir Shah Daula in Gujrat, a saint of the Suhrawardi School of thought. During the reign of Emperor Aurangzeb, Shah Daula in Gujrat, is said to have the power to punish disobedient parents in the shape of children with small heads (Micro encephalic Children). These children are the property of the Shrines in different parts of the country and are called "Rats of Shah Daula".
Scores of worshippers and followers of Pir Daula Shah especially barren women, who beg for children, come to the saint invoking his blessings for the fulfilment of their wishes. The first born, usually with a very small head, is called the "mouse of Shah Daula" and is offered to work as a servant at the shrine. Subsequent births produce normal children.
According to a centuries-old tradition and the follower's belief, barren women who worship at the shrine of the Sufi saint Shah Daula, will become fertile. But unless they donate their first-born child to the shrine as an oblate, all their subsequent children will be born disabled.
Claims are made that the tradition has been used as the foundation for a trade in the donated children, who are deliberately disfigured and sold to professional beggars by the shrine's guardians, although the shrine is now controlled by the government of Pakistan.
It has been claimed that the defacement are caused by a genetic abnormality, but studies show that the children are unrelated to each other. There may be as many as 20,000 of these people, most in the Punjab province & the city of Gujrat."
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