Pakistan: Shiite Muslims walk on burning coal during the celebration of 8th day of Muharram

Rana Sajid Hussain

Pakistani Shiite Muslims walk on burning coal during a procession on the 8th day of Holy Month of Muharramul Harram at Basti Saidan Shah, in Lahore, as devotees remember the slaying of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson in southern Iraq in the seventh century. During the Shiite Muslim holy month of Muharram, large processions are formed and the devotees parade the streets holding banners and carrying models of the mausoleum of Hazrat Imam Hussain and his people, who fell at Karbala. Shias show their grief and sorrow by inflicting wounds on their own bodies with sharp metal tied to chains to depict the sufferings of the martyrs”commemorations of the Ashura festival in Lahore. Ashura falls on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar and commemorates the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohammad, who was killed in Iraq 680 A.D. during the battle in Kerbala.