Asian Muslims swarm home to mark end of Ramadan

Millions of Muslims in south and southeast Asia headed for their home towns yesterday to mark the end of Islam's holiest month in one of the region's biggest human migrations.

Escaping their adopted cities, they took buses, trains, boats and planes to maintain the age-old tradition of spending Eid al-Fitr holiday with family at home.

"Eid is about rekindling relationships and asking for forgiveness," said Malaysian writer Rustam Sani, a Malay Muslim. "For many, it's a once-a-year trip home."

Muslims also spend time on the day praying and visiting graves.

This year, 14.8 million Indonesians were expected to travel, some six per cent more than last year. Air travel could experience the biggest spike, media said.

In Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, nearly half the city's 11 million residents scrambled aboard overcrowded trains, ferries and buses leaving the city as they began a four-day holiday.

In car-mad Malaysia, 1.2 million cars are expected to use the nation's biggest highway, which runs the entire length of the peninsula.

Thousands of Indonesians working in Malaysia thronged ports and airports to return home for Eid, or Lebaran in Indonesian.

About 180 people have already died in road accidents in Indonesia and Malaysia during the exodus, newspapers said.

The timing of Eid, the feasting that marks the climax of the holy month of Ramadan, differs across regions according to the sighting of the new moon.

Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam, celebrated on yesterday along with several other Gulf countries, while many Asian nations, where the majority of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims live, will wait until tonight to mark the end of a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting and restraint from other worldly pleasures.

The Philippines marked the Eid yesterday, with police appealing to Muslims in the southern island of Mindanao not to use guns during the celebration.

Gathering before dawn at the Golden Mosque in the Manila's Quiapo district, Muslims performed prayers and then lit fireworks.

"In Mindanao, our worry is that people may get hit by stray bullets," chief of police Avelino Razon said.

"We have set up checkpoints to guard against firearms. We appeal to our Muslim brethren not to use their firearms," he said in an interview on local radio.