ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI, 26 October 2006 — Eid was celebrated in Pakistan, Bangladesh and some parts of India yesterday amid prayers for peace and prosperity.
In Pakistan, security was tight from the capital Islamabad to the southern port city of Karachi as people flocked to mosques and open-air services, with thousands of extra police guarding places of worship and commercial areas.
President Pervez Musharraf and senior officials offered prayers at the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. In a message issued on the eve of Eid, Musharraf urged Pakistanis to counter terrorists and the “misleading propaganda of those possessing negative tendencies.”
But opposition leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad used his Eid sermon to oppose American policies and Musharraf’s support of the US since 2001.
“America and its allies will face defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan. We will take back our land from American agents,” Ahmad said at the Mansoora complex of his Jamaat-e-Islami party.
Ahmad also said an alleged US threat to bomb Pakistan “back to the Stone Age” unless it backed the invasion of Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was itself “a threat amounting to terrorism.”
Musharraf said in his memoirs published last month that former Deputy US Secretary of State Richard Armitage gave the warning to Pakistan’s then head of intelligence in September 2001. Armitage denies the claim.
Meanwhile the founder of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba group, Hafez Mohammad Saeed, called in a separate sermon for “holy war” against anyone who showed aggression toward Islam. Saeed was freed last week after three months in detention.
Other Eid services were held across much of the country including in the capital of Azad Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, and in other areas hit by a devastating earthquake last year.
However Pakistan’s conservative North West Frontier Province and in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan marked Eid two days earlier, on Monday, due to discord between senior scholars over the sighting of the new moon.
In Bangladesh, prayers for stability were held during yesterday’s Eid celebrations ahead of a brewing political storm as the world’s third-largest Muslim country prepares for January polls.
“Almighty Allah bless the country, which is in the throes of political adversity,” a prayer leader told a 50,000-strong congregation at Dhaka’s national mosque.
Talks between the government and opposition hit an impasse Monday over the appointment of the head of an interim government that would oversee the elections.
The main opposition Awami League has said it could not accept the government’s choice for the post and urged supporters to prepare for mass street demonstrations to force the administration to back down.
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party leads a four-party Islamist-allied coalition government due to hand over power to an interim administration on Friday.
“God, let a leader emerge from the bargaining and let them understand the political situation in order to hold a peaceful election,” the prayer leader said.
The festival was marred by the death of at least 28 people in two separate accidents as they traveled home to celebrate with their families.
In Indian Kashmir, thousands thronged mosques yesterday to offer Eid prayers and seek an end to the violence shaking the region.
“Allah we have seen enough death and destruction now. For heaven’s sake, gift us everlasting peace,” said prayer leader Mushtaq-ul-Rehman as rows of Muslims held their hands toward the sky at an open-air ceremony in Srinagar. “Forgive us if we are being punished for our sins,” Rehman said.
Prayers for a return of peace dominated the day in the scenic Himalayan region.
But Kashmir’s largest militant group, Hizbul Mujahedeen, in an Eid message, vowed to continue “its armed struggle against Indian occupation.”
“We will continue our armed struggle till it reaches its logical end,” the group said, urging people to remember “martyrs” — referring to people who have died in the unrest.
Federal policemen deployed in dozens of street bunkers greeted local people at many places and distributed sweets among children to mark the holiday. Several had strung banners across their bunkers congratulating Muslims on Eid.
Kashmir’s Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad urged militants to shun violence in his Eid message. “Violence will take us nowhere. All issues can be discussed around the table,” he said.
Eid was celebrated in Kashmir and some other parts of India yesterday.
