Religious places reopen in Hyderabad

Masks, hand sanitisers and physical distancing marked even prayers in religious places of worship, which opened after almost 80 days in the city.

While temples reopened for darshan to a thin attendance by devotees, that too sans any prasadam distribution, mosques saw regular attendance but with several changes, including the devouts bringing their own prayers rugs and the floors being cleaned multiples times.

In temples, despite it being Monday, the regular rush was missing at Lord Shiva temples across the city. Except for darshan, no other rituals like ‘Archana’ or other sevas were permitted. To ensure physical distancing, foot markings were made in the queue lines while wearing masks was mandatory for devotees to have darshan.

In the Hyderabad’s mosques meanwhile, prior to every namaz, announcements were made within the mosque to maintain physical



distancing.

“Managements of all mosques were asked to follow the instructions issued by the government. No one is being allowed without mask into the mosque. All the washrooms are locked and people have been asked to perform ablutions at home and come,” Mohd Saleem, chairman, Telangana State Wakf Board, said.

Across the city, masjid committees ensured that mats in the mosques were removed. “We are encouraging people to bring their own prayer rugs. Similarly, the floor is cleaned multiple times in a day,” said Ghulam Yazdani, president of the Masjid-e-Aliya committee. At dargahs too, similar restrictions were in place.

“Only one person is allowed to go into the room where the ‘mazaar’ is located. An iron mesh has been put up around the mazaar to prevent people from touching it or offering rose petals,” said an employee at the Dargah Yousufian, located at Nampally.