Mirza Kachat- The Giant

Centuries ago, in a village of Gilgit Valley, a woman pregnant with twins died and was buried. Her body, however, had some signs of life and with the remaining energy twin children, a boy and girl were born in the grave. They suckled milk from the dead body of their mother and came out of the grave when they grew a little bit. The male child was named Mirzakachat while his sister took the name of Lachani.

They spend their childhood days surviving on stealing edibles i.e. food and fruits from human beings throughout the nights and taking refuge in the grave at dawn. Many years of such a mysterious life style turn those into enormous ghosts. Out of vengeance and hatred for humans they developed a favourite pastime activity of harassing the humans. A deadly triangle of ugly looks, fearsome habits and hatred for humans made the monstrous spirits a-hard-nut-to-crack for those wishing to lure them into bondage. Countless efforts by several warlocks, sorcerer, and magicians resulted in a complete failure. Despite such rigorous evocation attempts, they remained unchallenged and unbridled. Nothing could stop them from ruling the roost in the valley.

Under the cover of blackness, just after the sunset, they lurked in the dark thus striking a bone-chilling terror into the minds of the locals. For this reason, their notoriety echoed in the air and reached not only the surrounding valleys, but also the far-flung and remote regions.

Once as luck would have it, the 'Pir' from Chatorkhand scheduled a visit to the area to have an audience with his followers. His visitation came at the right time in the right place. When the news of the horrific creatures reached his ears, he made his mind to bring the evil spirits beneath his command.

With this in mind, he recited the name of the Almighty, sat down in a room crammed with the heady scent of smudging incense, and initiated the process of summoning the Jinni. Lachani was much ferocious and didn’t submit. The Pir nailed her to a rock, where she still can be seen petrified. Her brother Mirzakachat however for forty consecutive days put forth stiff resistance. The last day the Pir emerged victorious. The ugly creature presented himself in the service of his new master and his reign of his terror came to an end. Local people celebrated the event and begun pouring out to praise their Peer.

Many months exceeded and the Jinni started out assisting the spiritual chief in the household chores. Additionally, the duty of collecting the religious offerings was also assigned to him. As a helping hand of the Peer, he would often accompany his master during visits to Chitral where the Pir had great following.

With his swiftness and the electricity he would gather religious offerings in a wink of the eye and transport them to his master's residence in the far-flung vicinity of 'Chotorkhand' in Gilgit. In short, he turned into the most obedient servant of his boss, however, on the contrary, he still harboured grudge towards the common humans.

The Giant was sometimes sent to Jinalikosh in Chitral, to work on the Pir’s estate there. On such occasions in Jinali Coach, Chitral, his acrimony surfaced, and he full of hatred, targeted the locals and soon similar incidences followed. A full cycle of such irritating activity became a daily scene in the vicinity. Sometimes Mirzakachat would go into unbridled outrage and get the locals beaten to black and blue. On different occasions, he would panic them to death by his revolting looks.

Soon the daily episode of torment and disgrace at the hands of the ugly monster became unbearable for the devotees. They approached the 'Pir' with bundles of complaints and pled him to take his stressful servant away from them. The spiritual chieftain complying with their plea, took his otherwise-obedient-assistant to his native residence in Gilgit. The devotees finally took a murmur of happiness and expressed gratitude towards God on the euphoric occasion.