Pakistanis pack mosques as Ramadan begins amid heightened security

Millions of Pakistanis thronged to mosques to offer first Ramadan prayers late on Wednesday, marking the beginning of the ninth and the holiest month in the Islamic calendar.

Security was tightened outside mosques and prayer grounds in the volatile port city of Karachi with armed police guarding the venues.

“I am satisfied with good security arrangements in place here. I have been coming here to offer Ramadan prayers in the last ten or eleven years but I have not seen anything untoward happening, the tension that is high today - nothing like that is happening here,” said Mohammad Ahmed, a worshipper.

Hours earlier, one of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s most trusted aides was killed in a suspected suicide bombing in the city when he stopped his armored vehicle to buy some fruit.

Pakistan has suffered a spate of bombings since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was sworn in last month, underscoring the challenges facing the nuclear-armed nation in taming a Taliban-linked insurgency.

Pakistan remains a day behind from most of the Muslim countries in marking the beginning of Ramadan due to the new moon sighting.

Comprised of leading clerics, the meeting of the moon sighting committee decides about the Ramadan crescent. Meteorological and other concerned departments provide technical assistance to the committee.

They convened on July 9 but the moon was not sighted that day, and the committee decided that first fasting day in Pakistan will be observed on Thursday.

Ramadan, also known as “Sawm,” is one of the five pillars of Islam, and requires that individuals abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual intercourse from dawn to sunset.

Muslims spend a great part of the holy month praying, reciting from the holy Koran and giving alms. Young and old alike crowd mosques at prayer times.

Pakistan is a pre-dominant Muslim country where more than ninety percent of its 180 million people practice Islam.