Assam celebrates Eid, minus the celebrations

GUWAHATI: The usual festive mood was missing, but Assam did not miss out of Eid.
Following guidelines issued by the administration, people stayed indoors to offer prayers as mosques allowed a gathering of a maximum of five people owing to the pandemic. In Guwahati, the historic Eidgah maidans wore a deserted look, along with other Eidgah maidans of the state.
“There were no prayers offered from the Eidgah maidans due to the coronavirus threat.Eid namaaz was offered mostly from homes, but in mosques, a maximum of five persons performed namaaz according to government guidelines. Everyone accepted rules laid down due to the pandemic and there was no untoward incident anywhere,” said general secretary of Central Hilal Committee, Assam, Imdad Hussain.
Hussain, who is also the general secretary of the Guwahati Eidgah Committee, said the number of “qurbanis” offered in the city also declined this year. Sacrifice of animals at a common place was discontinued this year due to the virus threat. “This time many people have not offered qurbani, especially in Guwahati. In villages, they offered qurbani but many of them in their homes only,” he added.
Several politicians, who had been publicly participating in namaz for years, were confined to their homes. But maintaining distance between the family members, they sent messages of sacrifice to followers through social media platforms. “Around 20,000 people gather where I used to offer Eid namaz. Offering namaz with just five people did not feel the same, but now the main target is to keep coronavirus target away. We prayed to Allah to help the world recover from the threat of the virus,” said Rupahihat MLA, Nurul Huda.
“An appeal was given by the Masjid committees of Assam to hold special prayers to give the country, state and the world a respite from Covid-19. Everyone, in mosques and homes, prayed together to give the world respite from the pandemic,” Inamuddin Ahmed, president of the Assam Zakat Fund, one of the leading social organisations of the Muslims in the state, said, adding that the number of animal sacrifices came down by 80% this year.