K & P

One region, separate days : Eid should be celebrated with Saudi Arabia: Ghulam Bilour

Eid across K-P and FATA was celebrated on Friday after Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai announced sighting of Shawwal moon

Our Correspondents July 17, 2015

PHOTO: FILE

MANSEHRA/ PESHAWAR:

Like preceding years, this Eidul Fitr in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was celebrated by the majority a day before the rest of the country.

Talking to journalists after offering Eid prayers at Madani Masjid in Namak Mandi in the city on Friday, Awami National Party MNA Ghulam Ahmad Bilour said, “Eid and Ramazan should be celebrated on the day Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does.”

Read: Eid moon sighted in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE

Eid across K-P and Federally Administered Tribal Areas was celebrated on Friday after a committee at Masjid Qasim Ali Khan led by Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai announced the sighting of Shawwal moon on Thursday. The committee received testimony of at least 11 witnesses who claimed to have sighted the moon. Locals of Peshawar, Bannu, Mardan, Karak, Charsadda, Nowshera and other districts celebrated Eid following Popalzai’s announcement.

Nevertheless, it remained a partial Eid as there were some, including leaders of political parties, who waited for the central committee to announce the sighting of the moon.

A moon for you and a moon for me

Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan followed the Centre and will celebrate the festival with the rest of the country.

However, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, offered Eid prayers on Friday, as per Popalzai’s announcement, in Nowshera district, his hometown. Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq quite literally celebrated Eid with the Middle East as he left for Umrah.

Awami National Party leader Asfandyar Wali Khan celebrated the festival on Friday with the family of late Azam Khan Hoti in Mardan.

Qaumi Watan Party leader Aftab Ahmad Sherpao enjoyed the day in their hometown in Charsadda though he was targeted in the same district in 2007 on the occasion of Eidul Azha.

With their brethren

Afghan refugees celebrated Eid on Friday, while their countrymen did the same across the border.

An Afghan elder living in Hazara, Wazir Khan, told The Express Tribune that prayer leaders of over 12 Afghan mosques in Haripur and of about 10 in Mansehra led prayers on Friday morning.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2015.