BAGHDAD, 20 August 2006 — Security forces were on high alert yesterday as hundreds of thousands of Shiite devotees marched into Baghdad to mark the death of a revered imam, a year after a stampede killed nearly 1,000 pilgrims.

Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki warned preachers against using mosques to incite sectarian violence as pilgrims from across Iraq converged in the violent capital which has seen widespread fighting between Sunni and Shiites.

Men, women and children carrying flags in the Shiite’s traditional yellow and green and copies of the Qur’an walked into the capital — many of them barefoot — defying fears of attack and vowing not to be intimidated by Sunni insurgents.

Seven pilgrims were shot dead late Friday as they walked through a Sunni suburb, a reminder of Baghdad’s sectarian tension at a time when police expect more than a million devotees to gather for the annual ritual.

Last year at least 965 pilgrims were crushed or drowned in the Tigris River when a stampede broke out after rumors that a suicide bomber was in the midst of the crowd heading toward the shrine of Imam Musa Kadhim.

Musa Kadhim was the seventh imam of Shiite Islam. He was poisoned in prison in Baghdad 12 centuries ago and his tomb has become a place of pilgrimage.

Last year’s tragedy did not seem to have scared off the members of Iraq’s majority Shiite community as they arrived in Baghdad to attend today’s march.

“I do not care if I die. I would come here at the risk of having my head chopped off. It would be a great honor to die on the day Musa Kadhim died,” said Kadhim Handel, 50, from Baghdad’s Sadr City district, a Shiite bastion.

Another survivor of last year’s disaster, Ismail Qassem from Al-Hussainiyah on the outskirts of Baghdad, said: “I expect more people this year as the tragedy has strengthened our determination.”

Bushra Siwan, 45, an Iraqi visiting the city from her home in exile in Jordan, had been planning to stay away from the march for safety, but said she had been overcome with the atmosphere as pilgrims gathered.

“I came to Baghdad a week ago to see to some family business and had decided not to attend this pilgrimage, but I changed my mind and here I am. It has been safe so far but if my children find out they will be mad at me,” she said.

The large numbers of pilgrims gathering in Baghdad — 24 hours before the actual ritual — left even the heads of security forces surprised.

“We did not expect them to come in such large numbers this morning. I think this year we may see several million pilgrims, which means it will require increased security measures,” said Brig. Jabbar Memjhed of the Iraqi army.

Iraqi authorities have created a detailed security plan and imposed a vehicle curfew across much of central Baghdad from nightfall Friday for two days until after the rally has dispersed. National police chief Maj. Gen. Adnan Thabit told AFP that pedestrians would be allowed to move within their own districts but pilgrims in the city will be limited to two tightly controlled routes across the river.

Only two of the bridges linking mainly-Shiite east Baghdad to the mainly-Sunni west of the city will be open, Thabit said.