KARBALA – Millions of pilgrims packed the holy city of Karbala Thursday for the culmination of one of the world’s largest religious events.
The faithful have for days been streaming through the golden-domed mausoleum of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson who was martyred in 680 AD, despite the threat of terror attacks.
Many in the sea of black-clad devotees swarming the shrine walked days along roads lined with blast walls and razor-wire, to reach Karbala, sometimes from cities as far afield as Basra, about 500 kilometres away by road.
Soldiers and police also mingled with the pilgrims, most of whom wore black out of mourning.
Iraqi officials said security was increased this year, with operations coordinated between the Interior Ministry, Shia militias and Iranian advisers. Extremists groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS have repeatedly targeted pilgrim caravans with suicide bombs and rockets.
Baghdad and much of the country south of the capital come to a standstill in the days preceding Arbaeen, as several major motorways are reserved for pilgrims on foot on one side and authorised vehicles on the other.
Arbaeen, which means “forty” in Arabic, is the culmination of the mourning period after the brutal massacre of Imam Hussein and his family and companions by Umayyad caliph Yezid bin Muawiya in the desert of Karbala in A.D. 680.
Karbala which lies between the Euphrates river and the desert expanses of Anbar has now grown into a city of around 700,000 people.
Karbala Governor Aqil al-Turaihi said on Wednesday that by the end of the pilgrimage on Thursday, an estimated 20 million devotees will have gone through Karbala, setting a new record.
Among them are around five million foreigners from around sixty countries.
According to the authorities, at least 17 million devotees took part last year, in what was then seen as a show of force in the face of the threat posed by the terror groups, which overran large areas last year.
Protecting the roads to Karbala and Shia Islam’s holiest sites were important priorities for Iraqi security forces and militiamen after the ISIS offensive.
Provincial leaders said around 30,000 members of the security forces were deployed in and around Karbala.
Iranian drones were deployed around the city “to detect any potential threat,” said Sahib Hamid, a member of the provincial council and of the Badr organisation, a Tehran-backed movement that has one of the country’s most powerful militias.
At least six people were killed in two separate attacks targeting marching pilgrims on Monday in Baghdad, according to police and hospital sources.
“I arrived in Karbala after walking for 12 days,” said Mohammed Hussein Jassem, a labourer from Iraq’s deep south.
“I found a lot of services on the road,” he said, referring to the thousands of “mawakeb”, spots where tents are erected by volunteers to serve the pilgrims food and beverages.
“I hope the spirit of solidarity and love prevailing among the people here will continue, not only in those days that we are commemorating the tragedy that befell Imam Hussein,” said Jassem.
He looked exhausted as he made his way towards the shrine, swept away by the unstoppable flow of faithful waving flags, including some from militant groups like Hezbollah.
“Of course we are not afraid,” said Ahmed al-Ta’ii, who walked to Karbala from his home in Baghdad’s Kazimiyah neighborhood with his nine-year-old son. “The security is 24 hours and every year it’s increased. Why should I be scared?”
Besides, he added, if anything happens, “we will just go to paradise.”
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