More than three million mourning pilgrims participated in this year’s eternal ritual of ‘Twereej Run’ amid tight security, heath and service measures.
The annual massive procession was launched after the noon prayer on the Day of Ashura, the day in which Imam Hussein, his family and companions were martyred in the 680 AD Battle of Karbala.
“The old city’s streets as well as the holy shrines were congested with mourners,” said a reporter of Imam Hussein Holy Shrine, mentioning that the shrines worked in collaboration with the local authorities in providing all security, service and health requirements of the ritual.
The Imam Hussein Holy Shrine predicted the number of pilgrims to be nearly three million - a definite increase than that of the previous years.
This is while around 4000 volunteers were deployed around the city in addition to the 20 thousand employees of the two shrines providing the required services for the pilgrims.
Sayyid Saleh al-Qazwini initiated Twereej Run in 1885 from the city of Twereej, where the run originally started. Nowadays, the run starts at Qantara al-Salam and goes into the holy shrines of Imam Hussein and al-Abbas.