Muslims begin three-day feast of Eid’l Fitr marking end of Ramadan

COTABATO CITY — Filipino Muslims flocked to mosques yesterday at the start of the three-day Eid’l Fitr festival marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, amid calls for sobriety in the festive season that usually involves firing guns in the air.

Meanwhile, anti-terrorism authorities are raising the country’s terrorism alert to the highest level beginning this weekend in anticipation of increased terrorist bombings after the celebration of Ramadan.

A ranking anti-terrorism official, who asked not to be identified, also admitted that ongoing security operations are underway to neutralize the post-Ramadan terrorist attack scenario.

"We are raising our terrorism alert level to the highest after Ramadan because that is really the time (terrorists) plan to resume their bomb attacks," the official said.

The terrorist plot cropped up after suspected Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists failed to carry out planned bombing runs before Ramadan.

"We have to be on highest alert after Ramadan because the reports we have received about (these terrorists’) plans are rather disturbing," the official said.

In Mindanao, home to minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic country and scene of a 33-year-old Muslim secessionist insurgency, Malaysian members of an international ceasefire monitoring team broke fast with rebel and government representatives who are engaged in peace talks.

At dawn yesterday, nearly 5,000 Muslim faithful gathered at two open-air fields in this city for congregational prayers.

A leading local cleric, Darul Ifta Jaafar Ali, urged Muslims not to fire guns in the air to greet Eid’l Fitr. Such outbursts have become tradition in a region awash with weapons, though Jaafar Ali warned that "it is not in accordance with Islam."

Authorities reported that at least two people were slightly wounded after being hit by stray bullets.

President Arroyo congratulated Muslims, who make up five percent of the country’s population of 84 million.

"Definitely, the thrusts of government on peace, stability, sustainable development and economic prosperity will be immensely advanced by the positive pursuit of the virtues of Ramadan," she said.

In Sulu, residents welcomed the Hariraya Puasa celebration with gunfire, even as police there admitted that loose firearms remain a problem in this strife-torn province.

Sulu provincial police director Senior Superintendent Suiabon Jalad said that as early as buka, the dawn call to prayer, gunfire could be heard in several towns, possibly from guns fired by civilians and armed groups.

"The firing of guns indiscriminately by civilians and unidentified groups readily tell us that loose firearms continue to exist here," Jalad said in a interview.

He said these people continued with their indiscriminate firing of guns despite his warnings and appeals for help from barangay leaders, whom he asked to help police stop people from firing guns in the air.

So far, Jalad said, none of the police officers under his command fired their guns. However, he said tradition prevails over many Sulu residents, who are accustomed to firing their guns during Hariraya.

"It is already part of the tradition of the Suluanos," Jalad said, though he added that there have been no reports of stray bullet injuries yet.

He said the people of Sulu commonly fire guns in celebration, even at weddings and to signify whether a newborn baby is a boy or a girl.

While this is the case, Jalad added that this does not mean that the police tolerate the proliferation of loose firearms and the illegal possession of firearms in Sulu.

The police and military have already accounted for thousands of loose firearms, including at least 11,000 recorded loose guns in 1996, he added.

Police records show that Sulu has the largest number of loose firearms and local officials believe that there are at least as many loose guns in Sulu as there are people.

Military and police officials earlier said Abu Sayyaf bandits and Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists planned to conduct massive bombing runs before Ramadan in urban centers, including Metro Manila.

They also said the bombing plot was scuttled because of the sustained anti-terrorism operations in Metro Manila and in known terrorist lairs in Central Mindanao, one of which resulted in the arrest of Ahmad Santos, chief of the Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM), a radical Muslim group with links to the Jemaah Islamiyah. — Roel Pareño, Jaime Laude, AP