Aerial firing did not take place this Eid

PESHAWAR: The general public that has been ignoring repeated warnings of the authorities and continued trampling the standard operating procedures (SOPs) during and after the lockdown has unexpectedly abandoned aerial firing during Eidul Fitr.

It was an old practice that the people,

particularly in the rural areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, resorted to aerial firing to celebrate moon- sighting.

The local police, elected representatives and Ulema have been educating the people to stop this useless practice since long. This time though a change was observed for the first time.

The police, elders and Ulema have welcomed this positive gesture and cited the recent tragic casualties due to coronavirus pandemic as well as the plane crash in Karachi as happenings that made the people sad and prompted them to abandon frivolous practices.

Another positive change which many noticed during this Eid was the less number of people who visited their near and dears compared to previous years.

Though visiting elders and heads of families for exchange of greetings is a time-honoured tradition, leaders of political parties and local elders had asked their supporters not to visit them for Eid greetings. Though the people ignored the government and experts’ advice and did not adopt preventive measures to contain the spread of coronavirus, many observed that their relatives and family members did not come to their homes for Eid greetings.

“As we have been hearing the government and doctors that social distancing is the only solution, we also think they should not come and we exchanged greetings on phone,” said Ihsanur Rehman, 60.

In previous Eids, all his daughters, married sisters, nephews and nieces would come to his house because he and his wife are the eldest in their household and heads of their big family. Quoting his grandson’s remarks, he said he was trying to educate him about the coronavirus. “I liked the way he was trying to educate me,” he remarked.

He requested others to follow preventive measures for the protection of their near and dears.One Liaquat Khan said he was astonished to see the positive change when he did not hear aerial firing on Chand Raat which is the night before Eid.

He prayed for all those who educated the people to stop this useless practice that usually took away someone’s life or caused disability.

He was confident that such useless practices would end with the passage of time.“Though I visited my relatives for greetings, I avoided handshake and observed social distancing,” said one Ayaz Khan. “I visited only my brothers and sisters’ houses but told them that we should observe social distancing and they all agreed,” he added.

“I avoided visiting friends,” he said. However, the doctors and government officials are worried about the likely increase in the number of Covid-19 cases post-Eid and it is feared the government would re-impose the lockdown.

As everyone observed, the people were least bothered to follow the precautionary measures to help stop the spread of the Covid-19.