TEHRAN – Head of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Alireza Rashidian has said more than 80,000 Iranian pilgrims have traveled to Iraq so far to partake in the huge annual Arbaeen procession.

“It is estimated that more than 80,000 Iranian pilgrims have entered Iraq to attend the Arbaeen ceremony,” ISNA quoted Rashidian as saying on Monday.

Earlier this month, Iraq agreed to double its previously declared visa quota for the Iranian nationals willing to attend the massive pilgrimage.

Arbaeen marks the 40th day that followed the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Shia Imam, and his 72-strong companions in the Battle of Karbala, in what is now southern Iraq, in 680 CE. The battle featured an unjust fight between Imam Hussein (AS) and his army and the hugely outnumbered army of the Umayyad caliph of the time, Yazid I.

Each year, millions of Muslim mourners set out on a symbolic 80-kilometer-long walk that begins from the holy city of Najaf in Iraq, where Imam Hossein’s father Imam Ali (AS)’s shrine is located, to the holy city of Karbala that houses Imam Hussein's shrine.

AFM