Malegaon: Thousands offer prayers at mosque

As part of security drill, people were not allowed to set up food stalls in the lane leading to Bada Kabristan.

A week after bomb attacks claimed 31 lives in this textile town, thousands of people on Friday, gathered for prayers amidst tight security at the Bada Kabristan mosque that was targeted in the blasts.

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"Normally around 6,000 people visit the Bada Kabristan mosque on Fridays, but today there were much more people, including women and children," local residents said, adding the prayers concluded peacefully.

"The kabristan was packed to full capacity and many people had to sit outside the masjid for the Friday namaz," the owner of a cycle shop, opposite the entrance of the mosque, said.

Strict security was being maintained with a posse of policemen deployed outside the mosque and also all over the communally sensitive north Maharashra town.

As part of security drill, people were not allowed to set up food stalls in the lane leading to Bada Kabristan. Those coming to offer prayers had neither brought their bicycles nor carried any luggage.