Srinagar: The Jumat-ul-Vida prayers with which Ramadan is given farewell on the last Friday of the month were not held in any mosque of Kashmir due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown.
This was also the 9th straight Friday without any congregational prayers held in the valley due to Covid-19.
Ahead of Eid-ul- Fitr, the lockdown restrictions were eased in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk so that people could do some shopping for the festival. Social distancing norms were observed, though, in the markets.
People continued to pray at home, even on the holiest Friday of the month of Ramadan. No throng of devotees was seen in any shrine or mosque, which otherwise are the main centres of social and religious gathering on this particular day.
In late March, the Jammu and Kashmir administration had banned congregational prayers in shrines and mosques across Kashmir valley, following the outbreak of Covid-19.
Jammu and Kashmir has so far recorded about fifteen hundred cases of Covid-19, while the fatalities have reached the 20 mark.
Abdul Majeed, a resident of Nawa Kadal, said, “My heart aches at the sight of these empty mosques. It is the first time we are not allowed to offer our Ramadan prayers at any mosque due to Covid-19. There are no loudspeakers reciting Quran, no muezzin calling for prayers, no markets to add colour to Eid.”
Majeed, in his 50s, was a regular visitor to Dargah Hazratbal to offer Jumat-ul-Vida prayers but this year he was not able to visit the shrine.
“I pray that our Allah will forgive us and this virus will come to an end. The birds are praying in the shrines, I hope our lord will hear them. We know this is not a time to offer prayers in the masjid but we have not seen such a situation ever in our life,” he added.
Fatima Begum usually offered Jumat-ul-Vida prayers at Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid. “On this day I used to go early in the morning so that I could offer my salah inside the masjid. When sometimes the Jummah prayers were not allowed in the masjid, then I visited Javeed Sahib masjid. But this year we are not able to go anywhere. We simply offer Zuhr prayers in our homes,” she said.
Similarly, Srinagar resident Mushtaq Ahmad said, “For the last two months we are offering Zuhr prayers in our homes on Friday. We were hoping that maybe we will be able to offer Jumat-ul-Vida congregational prayers but nothing such happened.” (With inputs from KALEEM GEELANI)

NAZIMA SIDIQ