Muslims in Bangladesh will start fasting on Sunday as the moon for their holy month of Ramadan has been sighted.
The National Moon Sighting Committee announced the date after a meeting chaired by Md Faridul Haque Khan, state minister for religious affairs and chairman of the committee, on Saturday evening.
The Muslims of Saudi Arabia started fasting on Saturday after the moon was sighted there on Friday, reports bdnews24.com.
Generally, Ramadan starts and Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha are celebrated in Bangladesh a day after those events in Saudi Arabia.
Muslims will offer Taraweeh prayers after Isha prayers on Saturday ahead of the first day of Ramadan.
The fasting on the first day of the month on the Islamic calendar will begin with the end of Sehri or Suhoor at 4:27 am on Sunday in Dhaka and adjacent areas while the fasting is to be broken with Iftar at 6:19 pm.
The timings of Sehri for Gazipur, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Tangail, Chandpur, Lakshmipur and Rangpur will be the same as Dhaka’s, according to the Islamic Foundation.
Sehri and Iftar timings in other parts of Bangladesh will differ by 10 to 12 minutes from the timings in Dhaka.
In 2020 and 2021, the government set health rules for Taraweeh and other daily prayers at mosques during Ramadan as part of efforts to stem a surge of coronavirus cases.
No special instructions have been issued so far this year as the pandemic has ebbed.
