Muslims mourn quake victims at emotional Friday prayers

Muslims across South Asia on Friday held emotional prayers for the victims of the massive earthquake, both the tens of thousands killed and those survivors now suffering from cold and hunger.

Clerics honored the dead in crowded mosques across Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, urging the faithful — even those in the quake disaster zone — not to abandon their Muslim rituals, like fasting for Ramadan.

Across Pakistan, the country hardest hit by Saturday's massive 7.6-magnitude quake, the faithful heeded President Pervez Musharraf's call for special Friday prayers, with some spilling out of mosques to pray in streets and parks.

In the devastated city of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, dozens attended prayers at the three mosques that remain more or less intact following the quake.

Across the border in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where more than 1,300 people were killed in the quake, thousands attended a "solidarity prayer" service at the 17th-century Jamia Masjid in Srinagar, the region's summer capital.

Separatists launched a fund-raising drive and urged New Delhi and Islamabad to grant free passage across the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Kashmir in two.