Page 15 - The Majestic Balochistan

The Mum of Quetta
Like many other cities of Pakistan, Quetta also cherishes a handful of popular myths that have been transferred by the
word of mouth over the generations. With due exaggerations, of course, many of the known mythical stories fall into
different genres, some inspirational, some legendary and some horror. Perhaps, the most widely known myth of town
that even today lies in the memories and conversations of residents in Quetta is the tale of the Mum’. The legend says
that the Mum was a monstrous creature having an upper body of a human female and a lower body of a lion or some
other wild animal. People relate seeing the Mum either on two legs or four, having long nails, black curly hair and a
very long bushy tail. Mum lived in dark caves in the mountains of Quetta and would mostly be sighted in the Hanna
Valley or the Koh-e-Murdar mountains. As the elders told us, the Mum preyed upon mischievous children or on
people who would stay on in a mountainous area after the sunset. It was also said that the Mum mysteriously disappea-
red goats and sheep from local farms to fulfil her hunger.
It was so widely believed that during the 1900s,
families in the city would especially be careful with
their doors after the call of Maghrib Prayer so that the
Mum may not enter their houses. Children were specifi-
cally told to stay inside after dark in fear of the creatu-
re sighting them and eventually eating them up after
carrying them away to her cave. Interestingly, this myth
like most others also has a retrospective link to regio-
nal history which almost accurately explains how the
story of Mum probably started and how the details of
the appearance of it were hugely similar no matter who
you heard the story from in Quetta. It turns out that the
story links to a Sphinx Statue that was located on
Zarghoon Road Quetta near the Miri (Quetta) Fort in
the 19th century. This statue was built in the 1880s in a
Christian Graveyard as a memorial for the slain
soldiers who had participated in the Second
Anglo-Afghan war between 1880 and 1883. The memo-
rial was labelled "Mum' by the locals who were fearful
of it being a demon because of the way it looked with a
human face and body of a lion. Over the years, the
statue turned into tales and eventually the myth of the
Mum started propagating in the city. The Quetta Sphinx
Statue was later destroyed by a mob in 1992 as a
reaction to some socio-political unrest in the city.
Nonetheless, in recent years, Mum has become quite an
old talk, living mostly in the memories and nightmares
of the millennials of Quetta. This is probably because
of a story that surfaced years ago according to which
some military personal shot the Mum dead outside her
cave. The Mum had taken one of their troop members
up her cave in Hannah Valley compelling them to
follow her to rescue their partner. When they reached
the suburbs of the cave, they were able to target the
Mum with their weapons. The legend says that they
found their lost partner unconscious in her cave while
another says that they found him half-eaten by the
vicious Mum. However, no one for sure knows how
authentic the story of the death of Mum is, maybe she
still lives in those mountains. Maybe she is just hiberna-
ting and would appear back soon on a suitable time
(Pun intended). Author's note: The author takes no
responsibility for any nightmares as a result of reading this blog especially to those who might have forgotten about
the Mum and were reminded of it again by this blog.