KARBALA, Feb 27: Amid tight security, millions of pilgrims flocked on Wednesday to the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala for Arbaeen, one of the holiest ceremonies in the Shia calendar which was largely suppressed during the rule of Saddam Hussein.

Millions more are expected to visit Karbala by the time the event culminates on Thursday.

“Under Saddam, those who went to Karbala were killed or had their legs shot so they could not walk again,” said Hussein Hamad, 74, one of the pilgrims in the giant procession snaking towards the city.

“Today love for Imam Hussein guides our steps. Never again will we be prevented from praying in Karbala.”

Pilgrims began flocking back to Karbala for their annual ceremonies soon after the overthrow of Saddam in 2003, but a string of attacks kept many away.

Today pilgrims must go through a series of checkpoints that include metal detectors and a full-body frisk before they can enter the city. Vehicle traffic is banned.

Some 50,000 Iraqi police and soldiers have been deployed in the area in a bid to prevent insurgent attacks.

At a tent rest stop in Hilla, on the road to Karbala, a group of pilgrims gathered for food and some warm tea. They included children as well as adults of all ages and even a few pilgrims in wheelchairs.

“Every year since the fall of the old regime we’ve been reluctant to walk to Karbala,” said Um Aya, a young woman who sheltered her infant child from the dawn chill under her long black abaya cloak.

“But this year, we are determined to do it,” she said with a tired look in her eyes.

Um Aya had left her home town of Diwaniyah in central Iraq on foot four days earlier and still not reached Karbala.

It was in a similar rest tent in the town of Iskandiriyah, on the road from Baghdad to Karbala, that a suicide bomber struck on Sunday, killing 48 pilgrims and wounding 68.—AFP