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Idul Adha celebrated amid haze
Devoted: Pekanbaru residents perform Idul Adha prayers amid thick smoke from land and forest fires on Thursday morning
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Devoted: Pekanbaru residents perform Idul Adha prayers amid thick smoke from land and forest fires on Thursday morning. Some worshippers donned masks to protect themselves from any adverse health effects. (JP/Rizal Harahap) (JP/Rizal Harahap)
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span class="inline inline-center">Devoted: Pekanbaru residents perform Idul Adha prayers amid thick smoke from land and forest fires on Thursday morning. Some worshippers donned masks to protect themselves from any adverse health effects. (JP/Rizal Harahap)
After receding in the last two days, thick smoke from land and forest fires has once more blanketed Pekanbaru, Riau, forcing thousands of Muslims to perform Idul Adha prayers in dense haze.
Based on monitoring data from the Pekanbaru Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) on Thursday, fog mixed with smoke had reduced visibility in the city to just 50 meters.
'Other cities in Riau have also been blanketed with haze, but their conditions are not as bad as in Pekanbaru. In Rengat and Pelalawan, for example, the visibility is around 200 meters while in Dumai, conditions are much better, reaching 4 kilometers,' BMKG Pekanbaru head Sugarin said on Thursday.
Sugarin added that the smoke currently blanketing Riau was probably from other provinces in southern Sumatra. 'According to date from the Terra and Aqua satellites on Thursday morning, Riau has no hot spots. Meanwhile, South Sumatra has 200 hot spots, followed by Lampung [12], Jambi [4] and Bangka Belitung [2].'
On Wednesday, the number of hot spots in Sumatra reached 1,025. 'South Sumatra detected 791 hot spots, followed by Bangka Belitung [123], Jambi [60], Lampung [36], Riau [nine] and one hot spot in Riau Islands,' Sugarin said.
'Currently, winds are tending to blow from south to north. That's why Riau has continued to be blanketed with haze despite having very few hot spots,' he added.
Despite the thick haze, Idul Adha prayers ran smoothly in hundreds of locations in Pekanbaru. At the Pekanbaru mayoral office, thousands of civil servants and local residents prayed to commemorate the Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael. In the garden of the Sang Nila Utama Museum building, at least 3,000 residents performed their Idul Adha prayers. The Air Defense Artillery Battalion (Arhanud) Baterai P's exercise field was also provided as a space for Panam residents to pray.
Panam resident Ridwan Fauzi said he was very sad to see people forced to pray in dense smoke. 'They have to be very careful on the road on the way to pray. It's really bad. The smoke was very thick this morning,' Ridwan said. (ebf)
