KARBALA: Millions of Shia Muslim pilgrims defied the threat of attacks by extremist rebels and thronged the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala for the climax of annual Arbaeen rituals on Saturday.
Some had walked for more than 12 days, from Iraqs far south or across the border from Iran, while others were bused in or crammed into lorries for the journey.
Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi said a total of 1.8 million will have gone through Karbala for Arbaeen this year, including more than four million foreigners from 60 countries.
A sea of devotees descended on the city to reach the shrine of Imam Hussein, chanting Labayk Ya Hussain (O Hussain We Are Coming) to show solidarity with the revered Imam who was brutally slain with his small band of family and followers by the army of the caliph Yazid in 680 AD. Hussain, the beloved grandson of Prophet of Islam, was later beheaded for refusing to take oath of allegiance to caliph.
While many chanted in unison, rapt in a collective religious trance, others were keenly aware of the symbolic power Arbaeen could have in the war against the so called Islamic State group.
A mortar attack on the pilgrims that killed one person on Friday highlighted the huge security concerns surrounding what is believed to be one of the largest religious gatherings in the world.
But the pilgrims were undeterred.
Forget mortars, even if it rains terror on Karbala, we will not be prevented from visiting the shrine of Imam Hussein, said Khadem Hussein, a 25-year-old who had walked from Nasiriyah, some 300 kilometres away.
The Islamic State group led by Sunni extremists considers pilgrims to be heretics and has made targeting the Shia community one of its main objectives.
Leaders in government as well as Islamic clerics have been keen to cast the pilgrimage as an act of resistance against the radical rebels who took over swathes of the country in June.
Many of the 1.5 million Iranians who flocked to Iraq for the occasion said they were performing the pilgrimage on the order of their nations supreme leader, Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei.
Strength in numbers
Turnout estimates were hard to verify independently but all officials seemed to agree this Arbaeen was the largest they had ever seen.
The local operations command chief said new access roads had to be opened to handle the flow of pilgrims converging on Karbala, a medium-sized city around 70 kilometres south of Baghdad.
Even Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shiite cleric in Iraq, acknowledged that Karbala is not, in its current state, able to accommodate such huge numbers of visitors.
Aerial views of the city showed rivers of black-clad faithful, many wearing coloured headbands and waving flags, as far as the eye could see.
Central Baghdad has been in lockdown for much of the week as authorities restricted access and movement in order to avoid a complete logjam and minimise the risks of major bomb attacks.
Some towns in Iraqs southern Shia heartland looked emptied of their population.
The security deployment has been massive, amid fears ISIS and its seemingly endless supply of suicide bombers could seek to cause maximum casualties by attacking pilgrims.
Iraqi officials have stressed how crucial a recent military victory against the rebels in the Jurf al-Sakhr area has been in making the pilgrimage possible.
The continued presence there of ISIS rebels would have exposed the pilgrims walking through an area that has seen been dubbed the triangle of death.
Few incidents have been reported, however.
Besides Fridays deadly mortar fire near Karbala, which fell short of the area where pilgrims were congregating, three people were killed near an Iranian border crossing.
Three other people were killed and four wounded earlier this week, when a bomb exploded in Baghdad near one of the thousands of tents serving food and water to pilgrims. Agencies
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
