Shias protest shrine damage
HUNDREDS OF Shia Muslims today took to streets raising anti-US slogans in various parts of the Old City here to protest the bomb explosion in Askariya Mosque at Samarra in Iraq on Wednesday. All three historical Imambaras in the city remained closed as a mark of protest, while the Shia clerics have announced a week-long mourning against the incident and decided to observe Black Day on Friday.
HUNDREDS OF Shia Muslims today took to streets raising anti-US slogans in various parts of the Old City here to protest the bomb explosion in Askariya Mosque at Samarra in Iraq on Wednesday. All three historical Imambaras in the city remained closed as a mark of protest, while the Shia clerics have announced a week-long mourning against the incident and decided to observe Black Day on Friday.
Maulana Kalbe Jawad would lead the demonstration after Friday prayers at the Asafi Mosque inside the Bara Imambara. Various Shia organisations have urged Muslim businessmen to close their shops on Friday to register their protest.
Addressing a public meeting in front of the Shia PG College on Victoria Street in Old City, Maulana Hamidul Hasan urged members of the community to donate generously to rebuild the damaged religious shrine in Iraq. The demonstrators burnt the effigies of Osama Bin Laden, Mullah Mohammad Omar, raised slogans against US President George Bush. They marched in a procession from Kazmain and reached Victoria Street via Pul Ghulam Hussain where Maulana Hamidul Hasan addressed a public meeting. The clerics have urged their community members to oppose the forthcoming visit of US President George Bush to India.
In a statement, AISPLB president Maulana Mirza Mohammad Athar too condemned the attack on ‘Roza-e-Samra’ and accused terrorist outfits like Al-Qaeda and Taliban of systematic killings of Shias and of causing damage to the religious shrines of their Imams.
In fact, unrest within the Shia community was brewing since Wednesday evening when the news of the explosion at the Iraqi religious shrine first reached them at around 8 pm. Hundreds of Shias came out of their houses on Victoria Street and in Kazmain and started raising slogans against the incident.
Security in Old City areas has been beefed up by the district administration in view of the call given by various Muslim ‘Anjumans’ to hold similar such demonstrations throughout the week.
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