Alwaght- More than three million have converged in the Iraqi city of Karbala on Sunday to mark the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein AS, a grandson of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him).
The occasion, known as Ashura, marks the martyrdom of Imam Hussein and 72 of his companions in 680 AD in Karbala, after they refused to pledge allegiance to the tyrant Yazid.
Ashura is the culmination of a 10-day annual mourning period in the lunar month of Muharram for the third Imam of Shiite Muslims.
The rituals are observed in ultimate magnificence in Iraqi the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq, the latter of which hosts Imam Hussein's holy shrine.
On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, traveling from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Lebanon and many other countries, descended on Karbala, with officials putting their numbers at 3 million.
An Iraqi TV channel said authorities had created a security belt around the holy city to protect it from possible terrorist attacks. In the past, ISIS and other Takfiri groups have targeted the pilgrims on their way to Karbala or carried out bombings inside the city.
Across Iran, millions of mourners started the processions shortly after the sunrise, lining up in coordinated and orderly bands of passion plays and recitations of elegies which continued until the afternoon.
Sunni Muslims in the Iranian provinces of Kurdistan and Sistan and Baluchestan as well as devotees of other faiths such as Armenians joined Shiite mourners, distributing free food in a show of solidarity.
The Battle of Karbala between a small group of supporters and relatives of Imam Hussein and a larger military detachment from the forces of the Umayyad caliph represents the war as one between good and evil.
