Weekend sees Chitral roads teeming with wedding processions

CHITRAL, Oct 12: A flurry of wedding ceremonies was witnessed in Chitral town on the weekend with roads teeming with marriage processions throughout the day. Mursaleen Khan, a shopkeeper in the Chew Bazaar near the Chew Bridge situated on the confluence of Garam Chashma valley, Drosh and uppr Chitral, told ChitralToday that he counted as much as 23 different wedding processions passing through the bazaar till the afternoon on Sunday. He said that this number excluded those which passed through the area during the two hours when he closed his shop to attend two wedding ceremonies in his village of Denin. He said that the wedding season started in Chitral when the weather turned pleasant after the summer season but this year the number of weddings was on a steeply increase and usually the Sunday holiday was chosen to ensure the participation of maximum relatives and friends. The owners of tent service operating in the city were those receiving the largest boon of the activities which reportedly ran short of different items catering the needs of sitting, loding and serving of food for the guests. Abdul Ghafar, the owner of a tent service, said that he rented out all the items to eleven different parties on Friday and said that such was the state with all other dozen number of tent service shops in the city. He said  that he never observed such a large number of wedding ceremonies held on the same day in the town since he has started the business fifteen years ago. Maulana Israruddin Al-Hilal, a nikah registrar of a union council in the town, said he solemnized the nikaah of four couples in the day.]]>