Fervour, gaiety mark Eid in India
NEW DELHI: Muslims across India celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr on Saturday which marks the end of the holy month of Ramzan. Tight security arrangements were made at many places to ensure that the festival passed off peacefully, but protests broke out in Jammu and Kashmir in which a few people were injured.
Muslims offered prayers at mosques, greeted each other and relished the ‘seviyan’. From Gujarat to Jammu and Kashmir to Kerala, festivities gripped the nation.
“On this day, we pay obeisance to the almighty and thank him for his blessings. People come together and celebrate the festival with love and unity,” the Shahi Imam of the Fatehpuri mosque in Delhi, Maulana Mufti Mukarram Ahmad, said. Pakistani envoy Abdul Basit also offered prayers at the mosque and greeted people.
President Pranab Mukherjee greeted citizens, saying “on this day, let us forgive and forget our differences”. Calling it a festi- val that epitomised brotherhood in society, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said also extended his wishes.
Attired in new clothes and wearing skull caps, thousands of Muslims offered prayers at mosques in Hyderabad and Secunderabad and in other towns of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. In Uttar Pradesh, thousands of women offered prayers at a mosque in Meerpur in Kanpur. Governor Ram Naik and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav visited the Aisbagh Eidgah in Lucknow and mingled with the crowd.
However, in Kashmir, protests erupted in some places after Eid prayers. Youth pelted stones at police and paramilitary personnel, who in turn used batons and tear smoke canisters.