In a desert city in Pakistan, Hindu Muslims prepare food to fast, which in turn gather to welcome a Holi procession, which is a rare moment of religious solidarity in the Islamic nation.
Minorities issues are not found in mythology, which are a rich city of sand dunes and mud-brick houses in the southern Sindh province.
Raj Kumar, a 30 -year -old Hindu businessman, said, “All traditions and rituals are celebrated together here.” “You will see that on Holi, Hindu youth join Muslim youth, celebrating together and apply colors to each other.
This year, the Hindu festival of Holi and the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan fell together. Both incidents go on every year according to the lunar calendar.
Holi, The Festival of Color, has marked the arrival of spring for centuries, and the hoarse crowd has thrown colored powder and water over each other.
Last week, hundreds of Hindus organized a procession through the Mithi roads, one of the few cities where they form a majority, are warmly welcomed by their Muslim neighbors at the City Square.
After arranging food to break their fast for Muslims, 53 -year -old local Mohan Lal Mali said, “We have learned to live together since childhood. It has come to us through generations, and we are also following it.”
It is considered sacred in Hinduism, moving freely through the streets of the dehi, while women wear traditional embroidery sarees, which are ornate with mirrors work. There is no beef shop in the city, as its meat is prohibited in Hinduism, and Muslims only sacrifice goats during festivals.
The city of about 60,000 people is Mithi, mainly Hindu – in a country where it has 240 million people Muslims and 2% Hindus.
Fozia Haseeb, a Christian woman, traveled from the port city of Karachi, about 320 km to watch mixed opportunities.
“People who follow three religions are here: Christians, Hindus and Muslims,” he said. “We wanted to see for ourselves whether it was right, and there was no doubt.”
‘No division between us’
Ramadan is a month of peaceful prayer and reflection in Islam, and the Hindu has respected its Muslim neighbors, who will not attend the Holi ceremony with general enthusiasm due to religious rearing.
“Today, you can’t see color on me, but in the past, they will immerse me in colors,” Maulvi Babu Aslam Kimkhani said while applying powder on the face of local Hindu MP Mahesh Kumar Malani.
“If someone walks for a Hindu office, Muslims also vote for them, and on the contrary,” the only elected minority MP Malani in the National Assembly said, the lower house of Parliament.
As Hindus celebrated with processions and temples, there was no armed security – unlike other parts of the country.
In Mithi, 19 -year -old Muslim laborer Aman Ullah said: “There is no division among us. We are all humans, and we are all the same.”
Local police and administration officials said that the crime rate in the city is low, with “no major security challenges”, allowing them to easily make arrangements for major religious festivals.
Local officer Abdul Haleem Jagirani said, “His business, his daily life and his conversations have been together for centuries and they are still strong.”
Local people say that the peaceful existence of Mithi can be detected at its remote place, which emerges from the sand dunes of the Tharparkar desert, which is the border of the modern Indian state of Rajasthan.
A major coal project nearby has brought laborers from other provinces to the city.
