Eid Festivity: Muslims in Australia Celebrate, Afghanistan Grieves
Muslims in Australia had a meaningful Eid celebration on Thursday outside Sydney's Lakemba mosque. They were joined by leaders of Australia's ruling Labor Party including foreign minister Bob Carr as well as some of the officials of the Opposition.
Across Asia, Muslims in Malaysia, Philippines, Pakistan, Hong Kong and Beijing also celebrated Eid by exchanging sweets to one another and remembering family members.
However, the Eid celebration was overtaken by grief in Afghanistan when a bomb exploded at a graveyard at Ghani Khle district of Nangarhar province.
The explosion killed 14 women and children according to a report from Hurriet Dailynews.
Haji Ghalib, a pro-government tribal leader and former district police chief said that the explosion happened at an all-female event, where women gathered to commemorate his late wife.
While the women and children were reciting the Koran, the bomb blasted.
"I'm shocked, I can't talk," Mr Ghalib told AFP.
The bombing was associated to the Taliban as Presdinet Hamid Karzai had previously called for them to support their own country and not the foreigners.
"You are working for others, (foreign) guns are put on your shoulders, and innocent Afghan people are being killed by it, homes are destroyed. Give up on it, be Afghan."
"If you'd opened your office in Kabul, like other (political) parties in Afghanistan, you would have been respected. The gun that is given to you by strangers - leave that gun and take up shovels and work at your home. This is your home and you will never be disgraced, in other lands you are strangers and will never get respect."
According to Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, Nangarhar governor's spokesman there were seven women and seven children among those killed, while three women and a child were wounded.
In Abdulzai's much detailed report, the bomb was hidden near the grave. According to his investigation, there was a personal motive to the bomb explosion.
Meanwhile, Taliban leader Mullah Omar had issued his Eid message in Tuesday saying that the presidential elections in April will just be a waste of time. However, he insisted that the militants had no objective of getting the seat of power after NATO troops leave.