“To our Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty, may this Lenten sea­son re­new your faith, deep­en your com­pas­sion, and strength­en your hope. To the Mus­lim Ummah, may your fast­ing, prayers, and char­i­ty bring you clos­er to Al­lah and fill your homes with peace, bless­ings, and el­e­vat­ed Imaan.”

A heavy se­cu­ri­ty pres­ence marked the start of Car­ni­val Tues­day in San Fer­nan­do as Blue Dev­ils joined the first band on the road Fyr­na­tion, sig­nal­ing a de­ter­mined push to re­vive South mas.

For­mer Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray has ac­cused the cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion of ap­ply­ing “dou­ble stan­dards” on free­dom of speech, ar­gu­ing that the Gov­ern­ment’s re­cent ac­tions mir­ror com­plaints once made by the Op­po­si­tion when it sat on the oth­er side of Par­lia­ment.

Mid­night Mas in San Fer­nan­do was abrupt­ly shut down by po­lice just over an hour be­fore mid­night on Car­ni­val Mon­day, spark­ing out­rage among mas­quer­aders, band lead­ers and city of­fi­cials.