The most recent Islamist terror attack on a major Pakistani Sufi shrine struck the mausoleum of Baba Fariddudin Ganj Shakkar in the Punjab city of Pakpattan on October 25. Bombs hidden in milk cans, carried on a motorcycle, killed six people and left 15 injured.
Baba Farid, as he is commonly known, was a 13th-century preacher in the Chishti Sufi order, and a leading figure in the development of the Punjabi language and its literature. His burial site has long attracted Hindu and Sikh devotees as well as Muslims. Guru Nanak, the 16th-century founder of Sikhism, wrote in praise of Baba Farid, declaring that he shared with the Muslim mystic the quest for divine grace.
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