Thought you'd enjoy this one: LOL.
March 25
— By Simon Denyer
LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Police and soldiers clamped down across Pakistan Monday to avert Muslim sectarian violence as millions of Shi'ites marched in a day of mourning marked by self-flagellation and bloodletting.
Shi'ite mourners whipped their backs with sharp steel flails until the blood ran, but there were no immediate reports of violence on Ashura, which marks the martyrdom of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson, Imam Hussain, more than 1,300 years ago.
The period leading up to Ashura is often one of tension and violence between Shi'ites and the majority Sunni community in a country where hundreds of people have died in sectarian violence over the last decade.
President Pervez Musharraf vowed in January to end sectarian killings as part of a broader clampdown on Islamic militant groups and authorities are keener than ever this year to prove they can keep extremists under control.
In Karachi, police and paramilitary rangers were out in force for a Shi'ite march through the old part of the volatile city.
"They have also installed closed circuit cameras along the roads of procession," one witness said. "Hundreds and hundreds of police and rangers are deployed."
In Lahore, scene of the biggest Ashura procession, police manned barbed-wire barricades while marksmen gazed down on the mourners from rooftops throughout the ancient walled city and a helicopter buzzed overhead.
In the narrow streets between the Wazir Khan and Sohneri (Golden) mosques, groups of men leaned back to beat their bare chests until they turned bright red, the thuds mixing with the chanting of poems and praise of Hussain's bravery.
FLAILS, BLOOD
Then, out came men carrying wooden handles attached by short chains to around seven steel knives. They used the flails to beat their backs in a frenzy until covered in blood from the cuts.
Small boys, some as young as five, took part too, sweat on their brows and grimaces on their faces as they proved their devotion and their bravery.
"My three teenage sons will do this today," said Dilshad Hussain Kazmi. "I feel very proud."
Ashura commemorates the death of Hussain and 72 followers and family members at Karbala in Iraq in 680 AD during a battle with political rival Yazid.
Sunnis also mourn Hussain's death, but less fervently, and Ashura serves as a reminder of the divisions between Sunni and Shi'ite which date back to disagreements over the Prophet Mohammad's succession.
Zulfikar Haider Naqvi, a slight librarian at Punjab University, proudly displayed his self-inflicted wounds which he said would heal naturally, without medication.
"We injure ourselves so we can realize how much he suffered -- we try to feel his pain," he said of Hussain.
But doctors on stand by in ambulances throughout the city know Naqvi's optimism is sometimes misplaced. They treat hundreds of people for deep cuts across the back every year while others are rushed to hospital.
"We have taken two people to hospital today," said Dr. Abdul Rauf. "One man had a broken rib from the knives. Last year, a woman had her jugular vein cut by a stray knife" while watching.
SYMBOLIC HORSE
As the procession got under way, 50-foot (15 meter) white banners flew in the breeze, spattered with red paint.
A horse was led through the crowd as a reminder of Hussain's mount, wearing multi-colored silks and a red and white pom-pom on its head. Eager mourners reached out to touch the animal, which is also led into the houses of the faithful as a special blessing.
Tension between Shi'ites and Sunnis rose in Pakistan after the Islamic Revolution in neighboring Shi'ite Iran. These days most Sunnis and Shi'ites work, eat and socialize together without a problem, although intermarriage is rare.
Hundreds of Sunni and Shi'ite extremists were detained as part of Musharraf's crackdown, although many have since been freed for lack of evidence.
Meanwhile, the violence has continued. In late February, three gunmen burst into a Shi'ite mosque in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, and opened fire on worshippers during evening prayers, killing 11 and wounding 14.
Masked gunmen on horseback killed five Sunnis near Multan on March 16.
abcnews.go.com |
