Eidul Fitr to be celebrated in parts of KP, Fata today

PESHAWAR: Eidul Fitr would be celebrated in most parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the adjoining Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) today following announcements of the sighting of the Shawwal moon by the private moon-sighting committees at several places.

Defying the government and the central Ruet-e-Hilal committee headed by Mufti Munibur Rahman, the privately run Ruet-e-Hilal committees met in Peshawar, Mardan, Charsadda, Bannu, North Waziristan and other places and collected evidences about moon-sighting before making announcements that Eidul Fitr would be celebrated today. All efforts of the government to celebrate Eid on one and the same day all over Pakistan failed. It seems efforts were also made to stop holding of the meeting of private moon-sighting committees, especially of the one based in the Qasim Ali Khan Mosque in Peshawar, but these didn’t work. All these committees held their meetings and sat until late Saturday night before declaring that Eid would be celebrated on Sunday.

All eyes were focused on the historic Masjid Qasim Ali Khan where the meeting started a bit late than the routine time owing to the reported house arrest of Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai, head of the private moon-sighting committee and his deputy Maulana Khairul Bashar.

Strange reports were also circulated on the social media about the disappearance of Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai. Some reports suggested he had left for Dubai while others said he had gone for Umra. The social media was extensively used to show him seated in the airport lounge and in plane on the way to Dubai and a facsimile copy of purported air ticket too was circulated to discredit him and to prove that he has gone abroad.

However, family sources of Mufti Shahabuddin Poplazai rejected all those reports as baseless. “He had gone to Islamabad on Thursday to attend a meeting of the central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee and was supposed to return on Friday. But his mobile phone is off since then and we could not have any contact with him. We are sure he has been put under house arrest to stop him from holding a meeting in Peshawar for moon-sighting on Saturday,” a close relative of Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai told The News.

On Friday night, his deputy Maulana Khairul Bashar was also picked up from his house by personnel of some government agencies. He too was untraceable.

However, all these bids proved futile and the meeting at Masjid Qasim Ali Khan was duly held and attended by a large number of religious scholars. An unprecedented number of people had also gathered at the historic mosque to watch the proceedings of the meeting.

The participants of the meeting received witnesses from different parts of Peshawar. They also remained in contact with other private regional moon-sighting committees in Charsadda, Mardan and Bannu.

Initially there was confusion about the meeting at Qasim Ali Khan Mosque. It prompted religious clerics in Mardan to announce holding of meeting at Mohib Babaji Mosque and at Rajar village under Maulana Sahib Haq.

The first announcement regarding celebration of Eid was made in Bannu where the 12-member local private committee made the decision on the basis of 30 witnesses. Soon afterwards series of announcements about moon-sighting started in mosques in Mardan. In Charsadda also the committee under Maulana Sahib-e-Haq announced celebration of Eid on Sunday.

The meeting at Masjid Qasim Ali Khan continued till 10.30 pm. The meeting was attended by Mufti Uzair, Mufti Safeehullah, Mufti Azad, Maulana Ashraf Ali Marwat, Maulana Shafiqur Rahman, Maulana Abdur Rauf Jan, Maulana Hussain Ahmad and Qari Asim. As many as 56 people turned up to record witnesses of moon-sighting. Forty six of them were accepted and it was announced that Eid would be celebrated today (Sunday).

Reports said that 14 persons came forward in Swabi and claimed to have sighted the moon and their evidence was accepted by the local clerics. In Mardan, 18 persons made the claim; the total was nine in Shabqadar in Charsadda, eight in Bannu and 12 in North Waziristan.

On the other hand some reports suggested that chairman of Central Ruet Hilal Committee Mufti Munibur Rahman would chair the meeting of the committee about moon-sighting in Peshawar today.