Senapathi A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labours of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received.

PESHAWAR: Islamist terrorists on Thursday blew up the mausoleum of a 17th century poet in Peshawar, apparently because women visited it. It was revered in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Dedicated to Pashto poet Abdul Rehman, commonly known as Rehman Baba, the shrine drew thousands of followers, particularly at gatherings where his mystical love poetry was sung.

Reports said the poet’s grave was totally destroyed and the surrounding marble building badly damaged. However, there were no casualties.

A letter to the mausoleum’s management warned against “shrine culture” three days before the attack, said Sahibzada Mohammad Anees, a government official here.

Local residents told Dawn News television that Islamists had warned the local residents to stop visiting the shrine.

Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Geelani has condemned the attack. — Agencies

Praveen Swami reports from New Delhi:

Neo-fundamentalist groups like the Taliban, as well as some political organisations, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, consider the popular practice of worshipping at shrines and veneration of saints as heretical.

In a 2004 article, writer William Dalrymple reported that tensions were brewing over the shrine between students at two Saudi Arabia-funded seminaries and local residents.

The local residents said the seminary students —also known as Taliban — had driven out musicians who played at the shrine, in an effort to halt what they claimed were un-Islamic practices.

Last year, the Afghanistan government offered to renovate the shrine.

Terror groups had allegedly carried out similar attacks in India in recent years. In October 2007, terrorists set off bombs at the mausoleum of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti at Ajmer Sharif, one of South Asia’s most revered shrines. Two people were killed and 17 injured in the bombing.

In May 2005, the Lashkar-e-Taiba allegedly carried out an arson attack that gutted the 14th century shrine of Saint Zainuddin Wali at Ashmuqam.

The following month, a Lashkar operative was alleged to have attempted to assassinate the north Kashmir-based mystic, Ahad B’ab Sopore.