AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Local police, administration officials say the city has a low crime rate, allowing them to easily make arrangements for the major religious festivals.
In the desert city of Mithi, Hindus prepare meals for fasting Muslims, who in turn gather to welcome a Holi procession, a rare moment of religious solidarity.
Discrimination against minorities runs deep, but those tensions are not to be found in Sindh’s Mithi, an affluent city of rolling sand dunes and mud-brick homes.
“All the traditions and rituals here are celebrated together,” Raj Kumar, a 30-year-old Hindu businessman told AFP.
“You will see that on Holi, Hindu youth are joined by Muslim youth, celebrating together and applying colours on each other,” he added.
“Even at the end of the Muslim call for prayer, the imam says ‘peace to Hindus and Muslims’.”
This year, the Hindu festival of Holi and the holy month of Ramazan fell together. Both events move each year according to the lunar calendar.
Holi, the festival of colour, has for centuries marked the arrival of spring and raucous crowds playfully throw coloured powder and water over each other.
On Thursday, hundreds of Hindus held a procession through the streets of Mithi, one of the few cities where they form the majority, to be warmly welcomed at the city square by their Muslim neighbours.
“We have learnt to live together since childhood. This has come to us through generations, and we are following it too,” said local Mohan Lal Mali, 53, after arranging a meal for Muslims to break their fast.
Cows, considered sacred in Hinduism, roam freely through the streets of Mithi, while women wear traditional embroidered sarees embellished with mirror work.
There is no beef shop in town, as the meat is prohibited in Hinduism, and Muslims only sacrifice goats during festivals.
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