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Bangladeshis held in KSA for Valentine's Day party

AFP, Riyadh
Saudi Arabia's religious police arrested more than 200 workers from Bangladesh and Myanmar as they celebrated St Valentine's Day outside the holy city of Makkah, where the traditional event for lovers is banned by fatwa or Muslim edict, a newspaper reported yesterday.
The cleaning workers were caught Monday at dawn partying at a tent camp used by pilgrims at Mina, close to Mecca, Al-Madina said. The enforcers from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice found that 16 were drunk.
The men, aged 16-28, were employed by a cleaning company to clear the camp after the annual Hajj ended at the start of February.
Organisers of the party, who sold alcohol and food and brought in musicians for Sunday night, a day after the real St Valentine's, managed to escape the clutches of the religious police, the daily said.
"Valentine's Day is a pagan Christian holiday that no Muslim who believes in God or judgement day should celebrate," it said. "A Muslim is forbidden from taking part in this holiday and other unholy celebrations through food, drink, commerce, shopping, gifts, greetings, advertisement or any other form."
Muslims only celebrate two feasts, Eid-ul-Fitr which follows the fasting month of Ramadan, and Eid-ul-Adha at the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Makkah.
The religious police bar shops from selling red roses, teddy bears, greeting cards or even red-coloured gifts to celebrate St Valentine's Day.
They also warn shops, hotels, restaurants and public parks not to stage any special activities on the day named after the Christian patron saint of lovers.
They charged five riyals a ticket (1.4 dollars) without dinner, and put a large banner outside a tent where the all-night fiesta was held, next to a site where Muslims gather to "stone the devil" during the pilgrimage.
A singer was among those held after he fell and injured a foot trying to run away, Alm-Madina said.
The kingdom's grand mufti and highest religious authority, Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, condemned the party-goers.
"What these workers did in a holy place by celebrating and singing and drinking alcohol is a very grave sin," he told the daily. "Committing a sin in a holy place is doubly sinful.
"Valentine's is an infidel tradition that has no place in Islam," he said.
The paper did not reveal if the 200 had been released or would face prosecution. Consuming alcohol is strictly forbidden in the conservative kingdom.
The mufti had already branded February 14 a "pagan Christian holiday" and newspapers published the full text of a fatwa he first issued three years ago.