LONDON - Muslims around the world are celebrating Eid al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice, the second of two Islamic holidays celebrated worldwide marking the end of the annual pilgrimage or Hajj to the Saudi holy city of Mecca.

Across the world men, women and children prayed and sacrificed animals as part of the celebrations.

Eid al-Adha is the holiest of the two Muslims holidays celebrated each year.

Prayers were held in Myanmar, Azerbaijan and Iraq, while in India police frisked worshippers as they entered mosques amid growing criticism of the treatment of Muslims under Prime Minister Modi's right-wing Hindu nationalist regime.

Some Muslims slaughter a sacrificial animal and split the meat into three parts, one for the family, one for friends and relatives, and one for the poor.

The act is done to honour willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God's command, as told in the Quran. However, before he was able to sacrifice his son, God provided him with a sheep to kill instead.

This year's celebration comes amid escalating tensions in Kashmir, Indian's only Muslim majority region.

The Pakistani government has called for the festival to be observed in a 'simple manner' this year, to express solidarity with Kashmiris living on the Indian side of the divided region.

On August 5, India dropped a constitutional provision that had allowed its only Muslim-majority state, Jammu and Kashmir, to make its own laws, and also broke up the state into two federally administered territories.

The changes are the most sweeping in the nearly 30 years that India has been battling a revolt in its portion of Kashmir, parts of which are claimed by Pakistan and China.

Pakistan expelled India's ambassador and suspended trade in anger at New Delhi's latest move.

On Monday Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi travelled to Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, to offer Eid prayers at a mosque there.(FA)