Thousands of devotees from across Kashmir Thursday thronged the Hazratbal shrine here for congregational prayers and had a glimpse of the holy relic of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
Thousand of devotees also offered night long prayers toobserve Shab-e-Mehraj, seeking forgiveness and blessings from Allah.
From early morning today, the shrine reverberated with holyversus of Quran with devotees including men, women and children thronged theshrine throughout the day.
The holy relic was displayed after every congregationalprayer. However, at afternoon prayers the shrine witnessed highest attendanceof devotees. Emotional scenes were witnessed during display of the holy relicas devotees were seen in tears, reciting verses from holy Quran.
To ease out the traffic movement, a large number of privateand public transport were parked around the shrine particularly in KashmirUniversity premises. The market outside the shrine at Hazratbal wore a festivelook.
“Around one lakh devotees thronged the shrine today. Theholy relic will be displayed on April 5 to mark Friday following Shab-e-Mehraj,” said Peer Masood, administrator Hazratbal shrine.
Senior superintendent of police city traffic Al TahirGeelani said that additional traffic cops were posted on various routes toensure smooth regulation of traffic.
Besides authorities, social, religious and politicalorganizations organized camps around the shrine with some of them distributingtraditional Kashmiri Kehwa among devotees.
“Besides transport, arrangements for power, drinking water,medical camps and sanitation were made for the convenience of devotees A jointcontrol room was also set up at Hazratbal for coordination between variousdepartments engaged with the celebrations,” said deputy commissioner Srinagar,Dr Shahid Iqbal.
He informed that similar arrangements have been made atShrine and other places for devotees to mark the Friday following.