TEAL (MURGHABI) HUNTING IN DERA ISMAIL KHAN

9th 11th November 2012 D. I. Khan, KPK

Shaikh Muhammed Ali

Introduction:
Dera Ismail Khan (Urdu, Saraiki: , Pashto: ) , often abbreviated to D. I. Khan,[1] is a city in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. It is situated on the west bank of the Indus River, 200 miles (320 km) west of Lahore and 120 miles (190 km) northwest of Multan.[2] The city is the capital of the district and tehsil of the same name.

Etymology
The word "Dera" is derived from the Saraiki word er which means "encapment".[3] This word is commonly used for residential towns in the Indus valley such as Dera Ghazi Khan, Dera Bugti, Dera Murad Jamali, Dera Allah Yar, Dera Ismail Khan, etc. Dera Ismail Khan thus means the residential town of Sardar Ismail Khan Baloch. People of Dera Ismail Khan as well as Dera Ghazi Khan are also known as Derawal or sometimes as Dervi while the latter is used as Pen name or Takhallus. Historically the Derajat were established at the time when in 15th century, Baloch tribal immigration took place from Makran, Qalat and Sibi Balochistan, to Indus Valley. Sultan Husain, the Langah Dynasty's Sultans of Multan, being unable to hold his trans-Indus possessions; called the Baloch tribal warriors, for help and assigned these territories to Sardar Malik Sohrab Khan Dodai Baloch as "Jagir". Sohrab's sons, Ghazi Khan, Ismail khan and Fateh Khan, founded the three Deras or villages' named after them.

Foundation of the city

Dera Ismail Khan was founded toward the end of the fifteenth century by Sardar Ismail Khan Baloch, a son of Sardar Malik Sohrab Khan Dodai Baloch, who named the town after himself. The original town was swept away by a flood in 1823, and the existing buildings are all of relatively modern construction.[2] The present town stands four miles (6 km) back from the permanent channel of the river.1 With Afghanistan to the north, Iran to the southwest, and a reconstituted AlQaeda within its own borders, Pakistan is the linchpin of an entire region shattering in the collision of religious moderates and extremists. Having said that, it does not mean that life has come to a standstill in Pakistan. We are a resilient nation; life indeed goes on and we continue to travel to far off places for adventure and pleasure. 9th November 2012: I have been away from writing for the last five months for no particular reason. Mere laziness on my part; I guess although there has been so much to write about the places that I have visited, the people I have met, the memories that I have cherished and new friends that I have made.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dera_Ismail_Khan pg. 1

(The map of Dera Ismail Khan on Wikipedia) Let me take you on a three day journey to Dera Ismail Khan usually called D. I. Khan or simply Dera by the locals; situated down south in the KPK province. A very dear friend (Anees Sadozai) and colleagues elder brother Wazirzada Owais Sadozai was promoted as Company Secretary at one of the Dubai based construction giant in Islamabad and we were thinking that he would treat us to a sumptuous dinner at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad but he had made a peculiar plan and invited us for a royal hunting trip at Dera in the last leg of 2012. It has been ages that I had picked up a gun; leave aside going on a hunting trip. The offer was so subtle and tempting that refusal was simply not an option. We thus chose Friday 9th November 2012 to start our escapade. Anees picked me up around 9:30 a.m. from home and we reached his house where Owais was giving final touches to the packing of ammunition and arsenal that we were to carry for our hunting trip. We leave their house around 10:30 a.m., catch the M-2 Motorway leading to Lahore and subsequently left the M-2 at the Balkaser interchange and head west.

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(The good old letter boxes which we hardly use these days for communication after the advent of hand held devices in our lives) We stop by for Juma prayers around 2:00 p.m. at a location that I was hardly familiar with. After having quickie snacks at a truck stop we took another break around 4:30 p.m. for Asr prayers.

(Awais & I at a truck stop; relaxing) The trip was long and tiring and finally ended up at the Wazirzada house in D. I. Khan around 5:40 p.m. and after offering our Maghreb prayers at Anees house; we had a late lunch around 6:00 p.m. and right after lunch we left for the Shikargah (Hunting spot) at the Indus River reaching there in half hour. This, I found later; was necessary since we had to assess this spot and were supposed
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to reach here the next morning much before sun rise. We study this place and return home by 10:00 p.m., had dinner and retired by 11:00 p.m. 10th November 2012: We wake up at 3:30 a.m. and this gave me a good reason to offer my Tahajjud prayer, have a little breakfast and leave for the Shikargah (Hunting spot) on the river Indus reaching there around 4:40 a.m. We take the boat and reach the hunting spot with Mr. Zeeshan Qadri; our game watchman.

(We are heading towards the hunting spot in a boat on the River Indus) We reach the Machaan (The spaces that were setup for us) around 5:30 a.m. and Mr. Qadri and his helpers sets about 40 decoys and one Mojo. We say our Fajr prayers in the middle of the river Indus on sand beds and then took positions for the game.

(I am all set at the camouflaged hunting spot)

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(None of the birds above are real but are decoys and the one on the pole is called mojo in the hunting parlance) I get to learn the hard fact that patience was the name of the game in Teal hunting and the entire preparation from 3:30 a.m. onwards was part of the deal. The first four birds arrive around 6:15 a.m. I must hasten to add that these birds come from Siberia to avoid the harsh winters there, and by the time they arrive they have become weak; stay and graze here for 3 months and return home when they are very healthy. Another good season to hunt teals is when they are going back to Siberia in February.

(Shaikh the hiker is now in the boots of Shaikh the hunter) Anees got over excited, miscalculates the first shot and we lose all four of them. I would have done the same but somehow resisted. Two more birds come our way around 6:30 a.m.

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(And finally we shoot down two birds) Three of us shoot and both the birds were down. We wait till 8:00 a.m., enjoy the serenity of the mild waters, take pictures, crack jokes but no more birds wanted to die at our hands.

(From L-R: Myself, Owais and Anees) We came back to our camp, rest for a while, had vermicellis and tea. We return home by 10:00 a.m. i.e. after five hours, took a shower, have a dehati (village like) breakfast and rest.

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(We are on the way back to base camp)

(This is where we had our breakfast)

(This was our make-shift kitchen)

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(Before breakfast, I am resting at the base camp) Anees father had once told me that he would take me to Musazai, the place where his Murshid hailed from and today this dream was supposed to come true. We said our Zuhr prayers and then leave for Musazai around 1:30 p.m. reaching there around 2:45 p.m.

(The signboard at the entrance of the Khanqah) Musazai is known for the saints that are buried there and is at the confluence of Daraban and the route which leads to Zhob in Baluchistan.
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(This is the Shajra-e-Nasb [lineage] of the Sufi saints buried here) We had lunch with Anees younger brothers father in law Mr. Zahir Achakzai who resides in Musazai and then visited the graves of the 5 saints from the Naqshbandi Sufi order, shoot pictures and then return to the Achakzai house and enjoyed the local hospitality, Qahwa (Green tea) along with local Kaghazi almonds brought in from Zhob.

(This is the epitaph on the grave of Khawaja Dost Muhammed Qandhari R.A)

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We leave Musazai around 5:15 p.m. reaching Dera around 6:45 p.m. After having a long arduous day, we have our dinner around 8:30 p.m., offer our Isha prayers and retire by 10:00 p.m. 11th November 2012: Today I got up at 4:00 a.m., said my Tahajjud prayers and we left again for the hunt reaching there around 5:00 a.m. Four friends of Abdul Rahim (Anees youngest brother) greeted us who had been camping there since last night.

(Here are the 4 musketeers who were all a great shot and a wonderful company) We boarded their boat and sailed to the site. This time around, we had to wade through the water since it was shallow and the boat could not carry us any further; which was another interesting experience. We ultimately waddled and reached the site, prepared the hideout, setup the decoys and the mojos by 6:00 a.m.

(Anees and I posing with the decoys in the background)

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By 6:30 a.m. Kashif (aka Commander) downed one teal and that was that. We waited and waited but luck was not on our side and wound up by 8:15 a.m. and retreated to our base camp. On this trip, I was able to make friends with Shahzad Awan, a local lawyer and Aqeel Ahmed Weha, a Field Coordinator at the UN Food program. This duo was into serious hunting and later through Facebook I would continue to receive their updates on their varied hunting trips. We had a sumptuous breakfast of Omelets, Paratha and a cup a cha to go with it. We tried our hands on shooting 9 mm pistols and returned home by 10:00 a.m. Although we could not hunt birds but the experience in itself was amazing. We then took showers, relaxed for a while, packed our belongings, offered our Zuhr prayers by 1:00 p.m. We had lunch around 1:45 p.m. and left Dera for Islamabad around 2:30 p.m. We stopped by for Asr prayers around 4:00 p.m. enroute to Talagang.

(This is the mosque where we offered our Asr prayers on the way back home) We stopped by at Balkaser interchange around 5:30 p.m. for tea and Maghreb prayers. The journey was getting longer as it could get probably because we were now tired. We ultimately reached Chakri at 7:30 p.m. on the Motorway and finally reached Islamabad toll plaza around 8:45 p.m. By the time I reached home i.e. 10:10 p.m., I was dead tired but we were carrying strong memories of hunting, love and affection from this trip. After having dinner with my better half and children who all cuddled up to me, I retired with a thankful smile on my face. As the saying goes, there is no place like home and home is where the heart is. I need to rediscover infinity, and scream a Holy Yes that reverberates through my pores and pushes me over the edge into the world of poetic traveling
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longing to see within the ordinary, everyday mud and muck, poems and stories sacred to the core; to live awake; to recover, to reconnect, to respond, to rejoice with each breath I takeover and over and over againdespite the depth of the darkness that prevails around me in the land of the pure i.e. Pakistan. And Pakistan Zindabad!

Shaikh Muhammed Ali The Wandering Dervish E-mail: dushkashaikh@gmail.com Cell: +00-92-321-5072996 th Thursday, 13 February 2014, 21:11 p.m. (PST)

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