On his way to Bengal, the 14th-century Sufi saint Shah Jalal Mujarrad-i-Yamani is said to have received a pair of wild blue rock pigeons (Columba livia) from the revered Nizam al-Din Awliyaʾ (d. ca. 1328) of the Chishti order in Delhi. Shah Jalal then brought the pigeons to Sylhet. According to local belief, the descendants of these pigeons—known as Jalal’s pigeons (Jalali kabutar)—are still to be found today in his shrine (mazar) in Sylhet, one of Bangladesh’s most important pilgrimage sites, as well as in some other parts of Bengal. Pilgrimage (ziyarat) to Shah Jalal’s mazar is accompanied by acts of piety that include food offerings to the sacred pigeons and to the sacred gozar fish in the tank situated in the funerary compound. These practices are informed by the belief that, over time, the saint acquired the qualities of a guardian of waters. These forms of animal veneration have long been criticized. So-called reform movements took their objections a step further in an attack in late 2003 when the pond was poisoned and around 700 fish are said to have been killed.