UNB :
A meeting of the National Moon Sighting Committee will be held on Sunday to fix the date of Eid-ul-Azha, the second largest religious festival of Muslims.
The meeting will be held at the Islamic Foundation office at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in Dhaka at 7:15pm with State Minister for Religious Affairs Md Faridul Haque Khan in the chair, said a foundation press release on Saturday.
The committee will announce the date of Eid-ul-Azha after reviewing information about the sighting of the Zilhajj moon.
People have been requested to inform the committee over the following phone and fax numbers if they see the Zilhajj moon anywhere in the Bangladesh sky.
The telephone numbers are – 9559493, 9555947, 9556407 and 9558337, and the fax numbers are – 9563397 and 9555951.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is set to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha on July 20 as the Zilhajj moon was not sighted there on Friday, according to media reports.
The first day of Zilhajj will be on July 11, while July 10 will be the last day of Zul Qaadah, reports the Khaleej Times.
Spotting the crescent moon determines the days of Hajj and Eid-ul-Azha, which is celebrated on the 10th of Zilhajj, the last month of the Islamic calendar.
The Day of Arafat will fall on July 19 and Eid will fall on July 20.
Bangladesh usually celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha a day after they are celebrated in Saudi Arabia.
Like the previous year, no Bangladeshis will be able to join Hajj this year as the Saudi authorities last month banned foreign pilgrims.
They announced on June 12 that it will allow only 60,000 vaccinated residents of the kingdom to perform Hajj this year.
It will be the second year in a row that the kingdom hosts a downscaled Hajj amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
