Following Saudi Arabia: Parts of tribal belt, K-P celebrate Eid

Eidul Azha to be celebrated in rest of the country today.

PESHAWAR: While the rest of the country celebrates Eidul Azha today (Saturday), the festival began a day earlier in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

Afghan refugees and tribesmen in parts of K-P and Fata – including Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai and Bajaur agencies – celebrated Eid with Saudi Arabia on Friday and offered Eid prayers.

This came despite separate announcements from the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee and the Ulema committee of Peshawar’s Masjid Qasim Ali Khan that Eidul Azha would be celebrated on Saturday (today).

A huge Eid congregation was held at Kacha Garhi refugee camp in Peshawar, where hundreds of Afghan refugees offered prayers and exchanged greetings. Likewise, refugees living in Shamshato camp in Nowshera, Khurasan and Zandi camps, as well as those living in Charsadda, Swabi, Haripur, Karak and North Waziristan Agency also offered Eid prayers and slaughtered sacrificial animals.

In the Shabqadar tehsil of Charsadda, few clerics in Matta union council celebrated Eid on Friday.

Local Ulema committees in Mohmand and North Waziristan agencies had decided to observe Eid with Saudi Arabia. Afghan refugees in camps like Munda Hajizai and other parts of the tribal belt had announced they would celebrate the holiday with Afghanistan.

A local tribal association in the Bar Qamber Khel area of Bara, Khyber Agency, also celebrated Eid on Friday. But interestingly, tribesmen in neighbouring Jumrud and Landi Kotal subdivisions of Khyber Agency will celebrate on Saturday (today).

In Swabi district, residents of the remote Gandaf and Bagecha areas also celebrated Eidul Azha on Friday due to a sizeable population of Afghan refugees living there, while residents in the remote Tati area of Karak also celebrated on Friday.

Afghan nationals living in K-P and Fata for the past three decades have been following the tradition of celebrating Eid with Saudi Arabia, while in parts of Fata some tribesmen celebrate it with the kingdom and others prefer to celebrate Eid in accordance with rest of Pakistan.

(WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS IN K-P AND FATA)

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2012.