I grew up hearing stories of my maternal grandfather's 'haunted' house which was allotted to him when he was an officer in a government organisation. The house was located in Head Marala, a head-works situated on the Chenab River near the Silakot city of Punjab, where he was posted. His family i.e. my grandmother and all their children including my mother also moved to the Head Marala House soon after he was posted there.
It was just their second day at the house when they realised that it was haunted. At night, they could hear footsteps in the lawn, as if somebody was coming towards the living room. But they could see no one. Other haunting happenings included some unusual voices in the kitchen garden at night. With time, these spooky occurrences became more common. My uncle (mamoo) who was 15 or 16-year-old at the time was one day asleep in his room when he heard somebody knocking the door. This was around midnight so he got scared knowing that the house was troubled and it could be a supernatural being. So he got up and tried to run to my grandparents' bedroom through the other door in the room. When he was getting there, the door of the corridor got shut on its own despite there being no source of wind. The door appeared as if it was locked, he kept trying to open it but to no avail so he went back to his bedroom.
After he went back to his room, he saw an old woman standing right next to his bed with a smirk on her face. She was looking at a different direction. What made him cry in fear was the fact that the lady's feet were not touching the ground. She was a little above the floor. He ran away and this time the door opened so he went to his parents' room and told them what had happened.
My grandfather listened to him and asked him to sleep in a different room. The next day, my grandfather decided to sleep in the same room where the ghost had appeared to verify if this was just a child's imagination or something was actually wrong. The next day he woke up with severe pain in his chest and he told my grandmother that he had also seen the same woman after Fajr prayers and that she disappeared after he recited Quranic verses.
They then decided to leave the house and move to another place, but they got an interesting story to tell us -- the next generation. Fast forward forty years, my mamoo had joined the same organisation and he was posted around the same area of Head Marala. My grandfather had passed away ten years before that. One day my mother and all her siblings decided to visit that mamoo of mine in Sialkot and they made a plan to visit the same haunted house to reminisce their memories. I went along with them.
I was 18 year old and was excited to visit the famous 'haunted' house about which I had heard so many horror yet interesting stories as a child. The house now belonged to another official who was posted there. But due to newly constructed buildings, we were unable to find the said house and were lost along the route. Finally after much ado, we managed to locate it and knocked the door. A young man in his 30s appeared and welcomed us when my uncle told him that they once lived here and wanted to visit the house to relieve their time spent here as children. He was very hospitable and appeared as excited as we were.
He also cooked food for us and we had lunch at the 'haunted' house. During the conversation, my mother asked him if he also felt something unusual to which he replied that he has gotten used to it as this area in its entirety was more or less haunted.
After spending a lovely afternoon at the house, we bid him goodbye. He saw us off at the gate where we also took many pictures. While our car was exiting the officers' colony on our way back, we stopped at a checkpost to ask about the route as there were certain blockades. The soldier at the checkpost was my uncle's friend so he told him how he visited that house along with the family and how the host was very welcoming. When my mamoo told tyeh soldier which house it was, he was shell-shocked and went silent for a moment. "What happened?", my mamoo asked him after seeing the utter shock on his face. "But that house has been empty for the last twenty years. No one lives there because people complain that it's haunted", he said.
We were all frightened, and this is a moment that still haunts me sometimes. That kind uncle whom we had met and he played our host was not a human!
It was just their second day at the house when they realised that it was haunted. At night, they could hear footsteps in the lawn, as if somebody was coming towards the living room. But they could see no one. Other haunting happenings included some unusual voices in the kitchen garden at night. With time, these spooky occurrences became more common. My uncle (mamoo) who was 15 or 16-year-old at the time was one day asleep in his room when he heard somebody knocking the door. This was around midnight so he got scared knowing that the house was troubled and it could be a supernatural being. So he got up and tried to run to my grandparents' bedroom through the other door in the room. When he was getting there, the door of the corridor got shut on its own despite there being no source of wind. The door appeared as if it was locked, he kept trying to open it but to no avail so he went back to his bedroom.
After he went back to his room, he saw an old woman standing right next to his bed with a smirk on her face. She was looking at a different direction. What made him cry in fear was the fact that the lady's feet were not touching the ground. She was a little above the floor. He ran away and this time the door opened so he went to his parents' room and told them what had happened.
My grandfather listened to him and asked him to sleep in a different room. The next day, my grandfather decided to sleep in the same room where the ghost had appeared to verify if this was just a child's imagination or something was actually wrong. The next day he woke up with severe pain in his chest and he told my grandmother that he had also seen the same woman after Fajr prayers and that she disappeared after he recited Quranic verses.
They then decided to leave the house and move to another place, but they got an interesting story to tell us -- the next generation. Fast forward forty years, my mamoo had joined the same organisation and he was posted around the same area of Head Marala. My grandfather had passed away ten years before that. One day my mother and all her siblings decided to visit that mamoo of mine in Sialkot and they made a plan to visit the same haunted house to reminisce their memories. I went along with them.
I was 18 year old and was excited to visit the famous 'haunted' house about which I had heard so many horror yet interesting stories as a child. The house now belonged to another official who was posted there. But due to newly constructed buildings, we were unable to find the said house and were lost along the route. Finally after much ado, we managed to locate it and knocked the door. A young man in his 30s appeared and welcomed us when my uncle told him that they once lived here and wanted to visit the house to relieve their time spent here as children. He was very hospitable and appeared as excited as we were.
He also cooked food for us and we had lunch at the 'haunted' house. During the conversation, my mother asked him if he also felt something unusual to which he replied that he has gotten used to it as this area in its entirety was more or less haunted.
After spending a lovely afternoon at the house, we bid him goodbye. He saw us off at the gate where we also took many pictures. While our car was exiting the officers' colony on our way back, we stopped at a checkpost to ask about the route as there were certain blockades. The soldier at the checkpost was my uncle's friend so he told him how he visited that house along with the family and how the host was very welcoming. When my mamoo told tyeh soldier which house it was, he was shell-shocked and went silent for a moment. "What happened?", my mamoo asked him after seeing the utter shock on his face. "But that house has been empty for the last twenty years. No one lives there because people complain that it's haunted", he said.
We were all frightened, and this is a moment that still haunts me sometimes. That kind uncle whom we had met and he played our host was not a human!