Mumbai: Haji Ali Dargah closed due to high tide alert in Arabian Sea

Mumbai Police on Tuesday announced that the Haji Ali Dargah has been closed due to high tide alert in Arabian Sea.

The city police has also requested citizens to avoid visiting Haji Ali Dargah during this period.

Usually, devotees flock at the mosque on the occasion of Eid and the festival is being celebrated with great fervour today in India.

For the first time since the two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, lakhs of Muslims in Mumbai and other parts of the state trooped out in full strength to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr and offer the traditional 'Salat-al-Eid namaz' (prayers) peacefully at thousands of mosques and Eidah grounds amid the looming loudspeakers row.

In Mumbai, Eid prayers were conducted at major venues like Juma Masjid, Minara Masjid, mosques in Mazagaon, Byculla, Bhendi Bazaar, Colaba, Bandra, Andheri, Jogeshwari, Malad, Kandivali, Borivali, Kurla, Sion, Ghatkopar, Powai, besides temporary Eidgah grounds at Churchgate, Bandra, Kurla and Bhandup.

Top dignitaries in the state including Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Shiv Sena President and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, Congress President Nana Patole, NCP State President Jayant Patil, Samajwadi Party President Abu Asim Azmi and others extended warm greetings to Muslims for a happy, healthy and charitable Eid-ul-Fitr.

n many areas in the city, the Muslims went to meet and greet police personnel and offered them 'Sheer Korma' as a mark of respect for their 24x7 services to the people.

Elsewhere, lakhs of Muslims and non-Muslims mingled freely, greeting, hugging and felicitating each other on Eid-ul-Fitr, displaying harmony and brotherhood for which the city is famed.

Muslim localities were decorated with festoons, moon and stars, homes, mosques and community buildings lit up brightly with twinkling fairy lights with the mouth-watering aroma of Eid goodies like 'Sheer Korma', 'biryanis', 'kebabs,' other special preparations wafting in the air.

(with agency inputs)