Lakhs Offer Jumat-ul-Vida Prayers

Over 1 lakh Muslims offered prayers at the historic Mecca Masjid on the occasion of Jumatul Vida, the last Friday of Ramadan.

Prayers were held amidst heavy security arrangements made by the City Police. Over 10,000 policemen were deployed across the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, to ensure the peaceful conduct of Ramadan's main event before the Eid.

The security arrangements at Mecca Masjid were personally supervised by the City Police Commissioner A K Khan. Police pickets were also deployed at almost all mosques in the city.

The prayers were led by noted scholar Moulana Abdullah Qureshi Al-Azhari, deputy rector of Jamia Nizamia.

Addressing the gathering, he called upon Muslims to follow Islam in true letter and spirit.

He said youth should maintain the same punctuality in offering prayers, on normal days, as they do during the month of Ramadan.

Moulana and the entire gathering prayed for global peace and the prosperity of Muslims across the world and India.

However, intermittent rains played spoilsport, due to which hundreds of people could not reach the Mecca Masjid for the prayers.

The compound inside the Mecca Masjid can accomodate nearly 20,000 devotees at a time, and yet, thousands of others were seen offering namaz on the roads - Shalibanda to Gulzar Houz and Laad Bazar - in the drizzle.

Huge gatherings were seen at Jamia Masjid Chowk, Jamia Masjid Mir Vazeer Ali at Fateh Darwaza, Jamia Masjid Barkas, Jamia Masjid Secunderabad, Masjid-e-Azizia at Mehdipatnam, Masjid-e-Osmania Sarf-e-Khas Paltan at Malakpet, Jamia Masjid Sahifa at Azampura, Jamia Masjid Musheerabad, Jamia Masjid Mohammadia at Lalaguda, Masjid-e-Aaliya and the Royal Mosque at Public Garden. (INN)