MINA: Muslims in most countries of the Middle East and North Africa celebrated the start of Eidul Azha on Saturday as about two million pilgrims took part in one of the last rites of Haj here in Saudi Arabia.
Eid will be celebrated in Iraq, Indonesia and many other countries on Sunday.
Most Pakistanis will celebrate Eid on Monday.
In Mina pilgrims cast pebbles in a symbolic stoning of Satan.
“I feel good and satisfied with who I am and for the chance to come to Haj this year,” said Palestinian pilgrim Mona Abu-Raya. “I am so happy that I am here.”
Not all were as fortunate, however, Muslims from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea — the countries hardest hit in the Ebola epidemic — were not given visa by Saudi Arabia as a precaution against the virus, a measure that affected 7,400 would-be pilgrims from these nations.
