War fears shadow observance of Idul Adha across Asia
War fears shadow observance of Idul Adha across Asia
Agence France-Presse, Jakarta
Millions of Muslims gathered throughout the region on Wednesday to observe the Islamic festival of Idul Adha or Day of Sacrifice beneath a heavy veil of security prompted by rising tensions over Iraq.
Bomb squads and army detachments were mobilized and police were put on high alert in cities from Afghanistan to Indonesia as governments prepared for violent anti-US or sectarian uprisings.
A rocket attack earlier in the week on an international peacekeeping office in Kabul prompted fears that foreign military and aid agencies in Afghanistan may be at risk during the celebrations. As of 0600 GMT, however, no incidents had been reported.
Instead, many Afghans celebrated their second Idul Adha since the fall of the brutal Taliban regime slaughtering cows and lambs, as is traditional for the festival.
In Pakistan, bomb squads were on alert and security was stepped up at mosques to prevent a repeat of the sectarian terror attacks that have become common in the Islamic republic.
In the ancient eastern city of Lahore, about 100,000 worshipers crammed into the landmark 16th century Badshahi mosque. At its Gaddafi Stadium the founder of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba movement of Kashmiri militants, Hafiz Saeed, led 10,000 people in prayer.
Unusually small crowds were reported at Eidgha and Memon mosques in the violent port city of Karachi. Shah Ahmad Noorani, president of the religious right alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), led 2,000 worshipers in prayers at Memom mosque, urging Muslims to unite against the United States and Britain to defend Iraq.
"Unless we unite we will never be able to defeat the evil forces," Noorani said.
In the capital Islamabad, Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali offered prayers at Faisal mosque.
In Jakarta, capital of the world's most populous Muslim nation, Indonesian police went on alert for possible terror attacks.
Apart from the reported discovery and defusing of a live grenade in the parking lot of a hypermarket in Central Jakarta on Tuesday evening, police said no incidents had been reported. President Megawati Soekarnoputri and her ministers and thousands of Muslims prayed at Jakarta's Istiqlal mosque early Wednesday.
Security was tight in areas with sizable Muslim populations in India. In West Bengal, where a quarter of the population is Muslim, the authorities boosted the police force from 22,000 to 30,000 for the festival.
Police in Gujurat, meanwhile, said they had raided a slaughterhouse in the Muslim-dominated Madhupura district of Ahmedabad and had freed five cows destined to be killed for the festival. Cows are considered sacred by Hindus and laws forbid their slaughter.
Police said angry Muslims had attacked them during the operation but the mob was dispersed with teargas rounds.
In India's only mainly-Muslim state of Kashmir, where an anti- Indian rebellion has claimed some 37,500 lives since 1989, police and army patrols searched cars and pedestrians.
And in Bombay, which has witnessed a series of crude bomb blasts in recent months, police were on similarly high alert, police said.
Celebrations in the tiny Muslim republic of Bangladesh went off peacefully and heavy rains couldn't dampen the spirits of millions of worshipers who were urged by clerics to pray for a peaceful end to the Iraqi crisis.