MIRPUR (AJK): Jun 29 (APP): People of Azad Jammu & Kashmir celebrated the sanctified festival of Eid-ul-Azha on Thursday with full religious zeal and fervor along with the renewal of the pledge to continue acting upon the teachings besides upholding of the supreme religion of Islam.

The day dawned with special prayers in the mosques for the stability, integrity, unity and solidarity of the Muslim Ummah, progress and prosperity of Pakistan and Azad Jammu Kashmir, early liberation of all occupied Muslim homelands including Palestine and Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK) and for the early success of the Kashmir freedom movement.

The Eid-ul-Azha prayer congregations were held in all small and major cities and towns of all ten districts of the liberated territory including the state’s metropolis Muzaffarabad, Jhelum valley (Hattiyan Bala), Mirpur, Kotli, Bhimbher, Bagh, Sudhanoti, Rawalakot, Havaili and Neelam valley districts where the people offered Eid prayer at the mosques, eid gahs and open places.

The biggest Eid congregation in the AJK Capital was held at Markazi Eid gah where hundreds of Muslims offered eid prayer.

Ulema and Khateeb from different schools of thought delivered special sermons to highlight the significance of the day and the purpose of the sacrifice rendered by Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) centuries ago.

They strongly condemned the locking of open places, central mosques, eid gahs and other places of worships of the Muslims in IIOJK by the Indian occupational forces to resist the Kashmiris muslims from offering the Eid prayers.

They also condemned the ban imposed by Indian occupational forces in occupied Jammu Kashmir over central Eid prayers congratulations at Eid Gahs and open grounds slaughtering of the sacrificial animals including cow and selling of beef in the wake of recent renewed reign of human rights abuses and the state terrorism in the Indian Illegally occupied territory of the Jammu Kashmir state.

AJK President Barister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry and Prime Minster Anwaar ul Haq Choudhry offered Eid prayers at the State metropolis and the native town of Bhimbher respectively.

Later talking to delegations of masses and the media, the AJK president and the prime minister vehemently condemned the continual carnage of innocent people in IIOJK by the Indian occupational forces especially since the bleek day of August 05, 2019 when India scrapped the special status of the IIOJK unilaterally at gun point blatantly defying International norms and commitments.

They expressed full solidarity, love and affection with the suffering freedom loving kashmiri brethren in their just and principled struggle for liberation of the motherland from Indian clutches.

Later on the ‘farzandan-e-Touheed’ sacrificed the permitted animals including camels, cows, sheep and goats following the foot steps of Hazrat Ibrahiem (AS) who by obeying the order of Allah Almighty, asked his son Hazrat Isnmail (AS) for his sacrifice. A sheep was slaughtered instead and Muslims were directed to commemorate the event every year.

Foolproof security arrangements were made, as usual, for Eid-ul-Azha congregations at mosques, Eidgahs and Imam bargahs during the Eid prayer congregations across the AJK territory.