Visiting cemeteries a must feature

KARACHI - Majority of citizens traditionally visited the graveyards on Eidul Fitr to visit the graves of their beloved ones.
The visitors reciting Quranic verses and sprinkled flower petals and rosewater on the graves of their loved ones. There are many people every year, who start celebrating Eidul Fitr by visiting graveyards.
The cemeteries are so crowded that it is difficult to move freely in the graveyard on the Eid day. “Every year, my family starts the Eid celebrations by offering the Fateha on the grave of my father at Sakhi Hassan graveyard. My father died 17 years ago and from that day to the last 17 years, we have visited the graveyard in the wee hours of Eid day to offer Fateha and showering flower petals on the grave,” said Taseer Abidi.
Gul Muhammad, working in the graveyard of Shah Muhammad Shah in North Karachi, said that he had been working in the graveyard since last 35 years. He said that thousands of people visited the cemetery every year during the Eid days.
There are people who spend around two to three hours on their relatives’ graves on Eid, said Gul Muhammad.
 “I guess a man never truly dies until the day no one remembers his name. I visit his grave every Eid and shower flower petals, it makes me feel that I am with him again,” said Muhammad Farhan, while visiting his father’s grave who died 14 years ago in a heart attack.
He informed that on the first day of Eid, huge rush was witnessed in graveyards as people went to offer Fateha at the graves of their beloved ones but the administration had not made suitable arrangements for traffic and visitors, which created problems for the visitors.
The flower stalls set up outside the graveyard by the daily wagers to earn money on Eid days at highest rates for visitors. Additional and temporary shops of flowers were set up in the roads leading to graveyards which also create massive traffic jams.

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