Starting in Indonesia and conservative Afghanistan on Tuesday, people slaughtered millions cows, goats, camels and sheep after morning prayers then gave some of the meat to the poor, in line with the teachings of Islam.

Eid al-Adha commemorates the prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son on God's orders -- he was later told to spare the boy and kill a ram -- and begins during the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Security was high in the capital Kabul due to the ongoing insurgency by remnants of the ousted fundamentalist Taliban regime, but thousands of people turned out in the cold at the city's Eidgha Mosque.

Eid celebrations were more muted in Pakistan, which is still recovering from the devastating October 8 earthquake that killed more than 73,000 people and left 3.5 million homeless.

Shortly after Eid prayers on Wednesday a 5.1-magnitude aftershock jolted the capital Islamabad and other northern Pakistani cities, but there were no reports of casualties or damage.

"I will not sacrifice an animal this year as I donated some money to Hizb ut-Tahrir," said Ghulam Muhammad, a businessman in Peshawar, adding that the banned Islamic radical group planned to arrange 1,000 animal sacrifices for the quake victims.

In Muzaffarabad, the quake-shattered capital of Pakistani Kashmir, few people were buying sheep or cows to sacrifice and many charity and Islamic groups were distributing meat in the city, witnesses said.

Housewife Gul Jafri, who returned from Singapore to her native Karachi for Eid, said that instead of slaughtering an animal, she had given money to a charity hospital whose doctors are treating kidney patients in Kashmir.

In the Indian Kashmir summer capital Srinagar, thousands heard a sermon by leading moderate separatist Umar Farooq at the main Jamia Masjid mosque urging austerity on Eid in respect for those "who have died in the freedom struggle and those who died in the October 8 earthquake."

Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India. India's part, the country's only Muslim majority state, has suffered a 16-year Islamic insurgency.

In the quake-hit sectors of Uri and Tangdhar, people prayed in open fields and in damaged mosques. "The mood is still subdued and people everywhere prayed for the harsh winter to pass quickly," resident Reyaz Ahmed said.

Thousands of people in the Indian capital New Delhi fought the chill brought by one of the harshest South Asian winters for decades to attend special prayers at various mosques in the city.

In Bangladesh, the world's third most populous Muslim nation after Indonesia and Pakistan, millions of Muslims raised their hands towards Mecca during mass prayers in the capital Dhaka and other towns.

Prime Minister Khaled Zia used her Eid message to call on Bangladeshis to work together to eradicate the extreme poverty that afflicts the country's "toiling masses".

Four people were shot and wounded by Islamic militants on the eve of Eid in predominantly Buddhist Thailand's restive, Muslim-dominated south, despite calls by religious and military leaders for peace during the holiday.

The region has suffered more than two years of unrest that has left over 1,000 people dead.

President Gloria Arroyo of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines said in a special message that she joined the country's Muslim minority in their celebration of the holiday.

Arroyo said she was striving to bring peace after decades of Muslim separatist violence on the southern island of Mindanao, while Muslims in the southern city of Zamboanga slaughtered dozens of cows, watched over by the army.

In Malaysia, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi joined some 2,000 worshippers in prayer at a mosque in his constituency in northern Kedah state, and later witnessed the slaughter of cattle at several mosques there.

Local media in Singapore, where around 15 percent of the population are Muslims, said more than 4,600 goats were imported and distributed to local mosques.

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