By IANS
Hyderabad : Sunni Muslims in Hyderabad and elsewhere in Andhra Pradesh observed Yaum-e-Ashoora or 10th day of the Muslim month Muharram Saturday. Shias will observe it Sunday.
Many Sunni Muslims fasted on Saturday. Meetings were also held in mosques and other places, remembering the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, the grandson of Prophet Mohammed, and his followers in the battle of Karbala some 1,400 years ago.
Shops and business establishments remained closed in the state capital and other towns with sizeable Muslim populations. In the narrow streets of Muslim-majority old city of Hyderabad, people were seen offering ‘sharbat’ (a specially made cold drink) to passers by.
Shias will observe the day Sunday as the religious leaders of the two sects differed on the sighting of moon of Muharram, the first month of Islamic calendar.
Shias will observe the day with ‘matam’ or flagellation. Thousands of mourners will participate in the historic “Bibi ka alam” procession through the historic Charminar and other major roads in the old city.
Police have made massive security arrangements around “ashoor khanas” or the venues of meetings and along the procession route in view of the bomb blasts in the city a few months ago.
A bomb blast during Friday prayers in the historic Mecca Masjid in May last year had killed nine people while twin blasts at a park and an eatery in August had claimed 44 lives.
There are an estimated 200,000 Shias among the Muslim population in Hyderabad. Muslims constitute 40 percent of the city’s seven million population.