Rajini rehearses for Ashoora procession

CHAR MINAR: Ahead of the big Ashoora procession in the Old City, members of the Shia community conducted a rehearsal on Monday with the elephant Rajini, which carries the Alam along the procession route.
To ensure that the 10th procession takes place smoothly, the Telangana Shia Youth Conference President Syed Hamed Hussain Jaffery said that Shia religious leaders, Nizam Trust Mujawar secretaries, Alambardar and Shia Youth Conference leaders and Fatema Seva Dal members conducted a rehearsal by taking the elephant Raijni from Bibi-ka-Alam in Dabeerpura, the starting point of the procession, to Chadergat via Charminar.

South Zone police had to clear the route to ensure that the rehearsal procession takes place peacefully."The procession started at around 1.20 pm from Bibi-ka-Alam amid rain. In course of the rehearsal, we found that the elephant Rajini was calm. We conduct this rehearsal every year before the final Ashoora procession to could find out the behaviour and health condition of the elephant. We hope that the 10th Muharram procession will take place smoothly," said Syed Hamed Hussain Jaffery.

The rehearsal, which started in the afternoon, culminated peacefully at 5:20 pm. Several devotees came in droves across Purani Haveli, Daru Shifa, Dabeerpura, Panjeshah and Miralam Mandi. Men, women and children attended the regular Majlis in several parts of these localities.

"The regular Majlis (religious gathering) are being conducted in different parts of the city. The Majlis is conducted in almost every Ashoorkhanas. The devotees attend such Majlis in droves from 8th Muharram and on 10th Muharram, no food is cooked at home," Naser Ali, one of the devotees said.

Syed Hamed Hussain Jaffery told TOI that all arrangements have been made by the concerned authorities for conducting the Muharram procession smoothly.