“We have approved visas for 33 Bohra children from Pakistan who have been invited by the community’s spiritual leader Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin in Mumbai.,” Ms Swaraj tweeted.The Bohra community is scattered across the globe and its spiritual leader is based in Mumbai.Ms Swaraj also tweeted that another Pakistani named Muzammil has also been granted visa for his heart surgery.
As Shi'a Muslims, Bohras believe that their Imāms are descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad by way of his daughter Fatimah and her husband Ali. They believe that Muhammad chose Ali as his successor and publicly declared this while he was returning from his first and last Haj in 632 CE. Dawoodi Bohras, in keeping with all Shi'a believe that after Muhammad, Ali had been the rightful wali, Imam and caliph, but the actual Caliphate was usurped by Ẓāhirī ("literalist") caliphs. Ali was the final Rashidun Caliph from 656-661 CE; the Imamate and caliphate were united in this period.
After Ali, his son Hasan ibn Ali, the first Ismāʿīlī Imam, was challenged for the Caliphate, ultimately resulting in a truce with the Umayyad Caliphate to recognise the claimant in power, Muawiyah I, as Caliph and avoid bloodshed, while Hasan retained the Imamate. After Hasan, Husain and his family and companions were killed at the Battle of Karbala and Husain's body was buried near the site of his death. Dawoodi Bohras believe that Husain's head was buried first, in the courtyard of Yazid (the Umayyad Mosque), then transferred from Damascus to Ashkelon, and then to Cairo.In the 15th century, there was schism in Bohra community of Patan, Gujarat as large number converted from Mustaali Ismaili to Hanafi Sunni fiqh. The leader of this conversion movement to Sunni was Syed Jafar Ahmad Shirazi. Thus this new group is known as Jafari Bohras and Patani Bohras. In 1538, Syed Jafar Ahmad Shiraziconvinced Patani Bohras to cease social relations with Ismaili Bohras. The cumulative results of these pressures resulted in over one million Dawoodi Bohraconstituting over 80% Bohra community converting from Ismaili Shia Fiqh to Sunni Hanafi Fiqh.[2]
Traditionally, they have been traders and most of them have the suffix wala in their last name to designate either their ancestral trade or their ancestral village. Many Sunni Bohras/Vohras are educated professionals with a large number of bankers, doctors and engineers among them.
(SUNNI BOHRAS)Sunni Vohras/Bohras have large communities in the major cities of Gujarat such as Ahmedabad and Surat as well as in smaller towns such as Patan, Himmatnagar, Modasa, Visnagar, Bhavnagar, Mahesana, Kadi, Kalol, etc. and in Saurashtra, in Una, Veraval, Junagadh, Jetpur, Porbandar, Mangrol, Viramgam, Gujarat, Dholka, Gujarat & Diu. There is a large community also based in Mumbai. After independence in 1947, many members of the community moved to Pakistan from India and there is a 215,500 strong community in Karachi. Recently, many Sunni Bohras/Vhoras from Ahmedabad, Surat, Karachi and Bombay have migrated to the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and the Persian Gulf countries forming small pockets of communities throughout many cities (numbering upwards of 1000 people at events in Chicago suburb, Harvey, Illinois, US)
