Nepal Muslims perform Friday prayers at home

Muslims in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, decided to perform the Friday prayers at home as the government imposed an indefinite curfew in the city after mobs protesting the killings of 12 Nepalese by a group in Iraq vandalized the city’s main mosque.

Authorities said the curfew imposed on Wednesday would continue to ensure there was no new violence in the Hindu kingdom.

"We will hold our prayers in small groups in our homes," Arif Sheakh, a mosque management committee member, told Reuters.

"This is the first time in my life when I saw such protests. I hope we can hold our prayers in the mosque soon," Sheakh, 35, said.

Angry protesters, shouting anti-Muslim slogans, rampaged through the mosque and Muslim businesses on Wednesday, prompting the government to impose the curfew.

Home Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka said the government would repair the mosque to try to win the confidence of Muslims in Nepal, who make up 3.5 percent of Nepal's 25 million people. The country has no history of significant anti-Muslim protests.

"The situation is gradually coming under control and there was no trouble. The curfew will continue on Friday," Kathmandu district administrator Baman Prasad Neupane said.

A group in Iraq said it had killed 12 Nepalese hostages who traveled to Iraq to work as cooks and cleaners for a Jordanian firm.

"Nepali Muslims also wept with the rest of the country over the tragic killings in Iraq," said Mohammed Nizamuddin, a former head of a Muslim religious body in Kathmandu.

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