Muslims across Telangana celebrated Eid-ul-Zuha (Bakrid) with religious fervour and devotion on Saturday.
Muslims across Telangana celebrated Eid-ul-Zuha (Bakrid) with religious fervour and devotion on Saturday.
Attired in their best, Muslims offered special prayers at the various idgahs and mosques in the morning and exchanged greetings. Huge numbers of Muslims offered prayers at Mir Alam Idgah, Mecca Masjid, the Masab Tank Hockey grounds, Madannapet Eidgah, the Mehdipatnam military grounds and other places.
Delivering speeches before the prayers, the imams exhorted Muslims to imbibe the spirit of sacrifice and follow Prophet Ibrahim, who offered to sacrifice his son Prophet Ismail to please Allah. The Almighty replaced Ismail with a sheep just as Ibrahim was about to sacrifice him.
The imams in Hyderabad prayed for peace in the country and across the world. They also prayed for rains as the city is facing drinking water shortage due to insufficient rains this season.
The Old City wore a festive look on the occasion. In response to the appeals made by a group of religious scholars and Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mahamood Ali, Muslims preferred sacrificing goats and sheep rather than cows. Hectic activity was seen in many parts of the city as the sale of goats continued throughout the night and into the morning. The goats and sheep were sold for Rs 5,500 to Rs 8,000 each. And butchers coming from other districts did brisk business given the shortage of them.
The police made elaborate security arrangements in the twin cities. The city Police Commissioner visited various places in the Old City and supervised the arrangements for the festival himself.
The festival was also celebrated at many other places in Telangana including Nizamabad, Bodhan, Warangal, Kazipet, Karimnagar, Peddapalli, Adilabad, Nirmal, Bhainsa, Zaheerabad, Khammam, Mahbubabad, Nalgonda, Tandur and Vikarabad. In Andhra Pradesh, huge Eid congregations were seen in Vijayawada, Guntur, Kurnool, Kadapa, Anantapur and other major towns.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and Governor of the two Telugu States E S L Narasimhan greeted the people on the occasion.
Also known as Bakr-id or Eid-e-Qurban, Eid-ul-Zuha is the second major festival of Muslims, and symbolizes sacrifice, absolute devotion to the Almighty and compassion for the poor. It is characterized by the sacrifices of sheep. The meat of the sacrificed animal is divided equally into three parts. The person making the sacrifice keeps one part for his family, while the other two parts are distributed among relatives and the poor.