Prayagraj: Traditional processions mark tenth day of Moharram

Thousands of devotees took part in the traditional processions on Yaum-e-Ashura or the tenth day of Moharram amidst heavy security arrangements on Tuesday.

However, instead of tazias, the symbolic flowers were taken to Karbala for traditional burial by different committees, which had earlier decided to not to take out tazias this Moharram.

Devotees raising slogans of ‘Ya Ali’ and ‘Ya Hussain’ accompanied the ‘phool’ that was taken to Karbala from different Imambadas in localities of the old city through GT Road.

Traffic diversions were also in place to avoid chaos and jam as ‘langars’ were distributed among those in the processions.

Since the traditional taziadars of Bada Tazia, Budhha Tazia, Jhula Ali Asghar and many others have decided not to take out ‘tazia’ processions, the flowers of the tazias were traditionally buried at Karbala on the tenth day of Moharram. The devotees from Johnstonganj to Karbala flocked the GT Road and many of them accompanied the flowers barefoot.

During the night on the ninth of Moharram, ‘fateha and niyaz’ were offered at different Imambadas where tazias were placed for ziayarat of devotees.

On the tenth day, the flowers of tazia along with mehendi, alam, taboots in different localities were collected and taken to Karbala for burial. A large number of men, women and children from all faiths and communities paid tributes to the flowers.

The flowers of Buddha tazia were the first to be buried in traditional way while others including Bada tazia followed under the guidance of Bada tazia committee Rehan Khan. The burial of flowers of Jhula Masoom Ali Asgar, Mehendi of Kareli area, tazias of Dariyabad locality, Mehendi of Chakia, Alam of Neem Sarai etc were being buried since morning and continued till late evening.

Meanwhile, members of Shia community organised ‘Majlis’ and observed ‘matam’ at Ranimandi, Roshabagh, Dariabad and other localities. Different ‘anjumans’ recited ‘nauha’ to narrate the scene of Karbala. Matam with knives and chains were performed in different localities by members of the Shia community.

Heavy crowd was witnessed at Karbala in Chakia locality where processions reached one by one till the evening. SP city Dinesh Kumar Singh, circle officer Satyendra Tiwari and other officials accompanied the main processions from Chowk to Karbala. As a precautionary measure, circle officer Amarnath Yadav presently posted in Lucknow who had earlier served as an inspector in Prayagraj some years back was deployed on duty at Karbala.