The chills & horrors of Peer Chanasi

7 min readDec 10, 2018

In the middle of don’t know where, but it was dark & freezing cold with no electricity. Candles lit up & air banging on broken glasses with no curtains. Fear of creatures outside & chilling wind blowing in. There lies our experience of Peer Chanasi!

It was yet my another “Tour of Pakistan” & what a country Pakistan is! Filled with natural beauty of all colors. Along with 3 friends I was on the way back from Hunza valley. We decided to have a visit of Peer Chanasi. Mostly due to the charm of snow & a height of 2924 meters from sea level. We had a special attraction to places with height. As you for sure get a hell of a view from top. Plus you will get a cold weather, coming from a place where winter is rare, it is an attraction.

Nevertheless Peer Chanasi is a tourist attraction. Going with the hill to the top. The last point is a Mausoleum of “Pir Sayed Hussain Shah Bukhari” after whom the place is named. Going there in November its -8 °C at night. With snow all around you get a feeling of deep freezer. We reached there at time of sunset, hurried our way for “Asr” prayers. Our driver left us for his home at Muzaffarabad as he was very angry on the hectic schedule we were following. He would pick us back next morning. Two of us left for search of rest house while others where with the bags. It’s hard to find a cheap rest house on top of the hill. At one of the shops a man named “Khadim Shah” offered us a cheap room for one night. He let us keep our bags at his shop while we had dinner & offered prayers. When he will close his shop, he will take us to the rest house as he also lives there. We found ourselves lucky to get that rest house.

He kept informing us that the Rest House is just 5 min of walk down the hill & even asked us to have a look from the top. We trusted him. At around 7:30 pm, it was pitch dark. There is no electricity there, people had setup their own generators. Khadim asked us to come with him & we started going downhill. Two of my friends were with him while me and another friend followed with some distance. Friends in front where flashing mobile lights. Our mobile batteries where dying & soon there was no light in front of us. We were expecting that they will stop a point & we could join in. But those 5 minutes were not 5. It was more than 15 now.

Going downhill there was a beautiful view of the valley. The lights from houses seemed like stars in sky. Enjoying the view, we kept going down but now it was more than 30 minutes & we were like cursing that man for wrong information. On the way I shouted to my friend “where are you people?”. He responded “down here”. We joined him but he was alone. I asked “where are the others?”. He responded that I was taking a pic of the view while they went further. So we kept going down. After couple of minutes was a car coming from above, shouting at us. I was scared that they were thieves, but my friends recognized that he was the owner of a hotel above. He shouted at us that one of your friend is above & hurried us to him.

When we reached at my friend he was looking pale. He said that guest house is here just above the road. We scolded him for not calling us but he said that mobile signals weren't available. Well we went to the room. The stairs where covered with rock solid ice which gave us the look that nobody was here for a while. We sat down in the room while Khadim started warning us. He said that “Lock your doors, don’t go outside. There might be cheetahs, bears & “Jogan” that comes out from the forest with golden comb & sprinkling sound”. Me being a believer of supernatural beings got worried about place being haunted & by looks of the room it also looked like it. Candles where lit, room was dirty, no curtains & broken windows added to the environment. We all were afraid but he said that take my number, if there is any issue I will be there.

One of the friend who reached the Guest House first was very worried. When I asked him, he said that this place is not good to live. I asked him “Why?”. Then he started telling about things when he was alone. He said that Khadim entered the room through window as he was unable to enter the room through doors. Plus, he entered through a room which shared doors with our room, but it was locked from inside! He said that when I came out side to see us, the car driver (who came to call us) found him first & he warned him that what are you doing here? There are no guest houses here!

Khadim Shah warning us not to go out

Khadim Shah calming us down

First thinking about it as haunted, now looking illegal. We discussed among ourselves that the best thing is ask Khadim sleep with us or we sleep with him. His room was just behind our room but access was from outside. Feared by the dangers we had a knife & stones in our hand, on the funny side my friend also took a selfie stick 😊, just in case. When we knocked at his door a voice came outside that scared the wits out of us! There was a cold & angry voice “What happened to you?”. My friend responded that can you please come out? When he came out he was angry at why did we disturb him in sleep. We asked if he could sleep with us but he refused. Then we said we will sleep with you, he angrily showed us his room and said “Where will you sleep?”. There was a room beside his room, we asked we will stay here. He said where will you stay here, it is an empty room, you will die of cold here. Then he realized that we were scared. He calmed us down by giving confidence that nothing will happen. He led us to our room & gave a good long lecture which gave us some comfort.

Still unable to sleep, we were sitting on our beds with shoes on, ready to run. Night passes by and after 30 minutes a loud voice came from the direction of window, “Are you all awake?”. We were scared! All of us. For 10 seconds we didn’t reply. Then he informed “Khadim Shah speaking”. Then replied “yes”. He said that I am guarding from outside, don’t worry. Well we started realizing that he is good man probably because of his age he looks strange. Well we were tired & one by one we slept.

We woke up for fajr prayer. There was a beautiful view outside with sun rising from behind the mountains. We were preparing to leave for the top. Packing out bags, we went to Khadim to inform him. He also had to go for his shop. On the way up I asked if when did he last saw those creatures? His reply was “never” & we were laughing with heads down that he scared the wits out of us. We didn’t found it right to ask about the window jump but we guessed that as it was a government guest house & he was a care taker, he used to get some guests on his own for some earning. Allah knows the best.

Well we reached the top & enjoyed our time there. We visited the mausoleum. Played with snow, buried our friend in snow 😊, till our driver arrived. We started our trip back to Islamabad & for to Karachi from train. But this experience will remain with us for the rest of our lives.

Always remember to get your clothing right before reaching there else this will happen 😊