Baghdad ( CNN ) -- The commemoration of Ashura , arguably the holiest day on the Shiite Muslim calendar , passed without significant violence in Iraq Sunday . The peace was a marked contrast to the last eight years in which hundreds of people died in sectarian attacks . The period commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein , the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed , who was killed in battle in Karbala in 680 A.D.. His death was one of the events that helped create the schism between Sunnis and Shiites , the two main Muslim religious movements . Iraqi troops and police were deployed in the streets of Baghdad and Karbala , a holy Shiite city where 2 million Shiite pilgrims from across Iraq converged for the festival over the weekend . No attacks against Shiite pilgrims were reported in Baghdad and Karbala in the last several days , police officials in both cities told CNN . Abut 30,000 security members from the army and police were on duty in and around Karbala , establishing four rings of security around the holy shrine of Imam Hussein . More than 200 female security workers were placed at checkpoints to search women passing through , Karbala police said . Pilgrims chanted , beat their breasts in penance , cut themselves with daggers or swords and whipped themselves in synchronized movements from Saturday through Sunday morning . Most people in Iraq are Shiites , and the commemoration of Ashura was almost banned under Saddam Hussein , a Sunni . The first public Ashura demonstrations in Karbala after his fall , in 2004 , came under attack by Sunni extremists . In 2005 nearly a thousand Shiite pilgrims died in a stampede over a Baghdad bridge triggered by a rumor that a suicide bomber was among them . Shiites gained the upper hand politically after Hussein was overthrown by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003 . Sunnis felt disenfranchised amid that political backdrop , and many backed insurgent actions against the government . As a result , Sunni-Shiite violence exploded in the early 2000s . While full-blown sectarian violence had ebbed by the end of the Iraq War , Sunni extremists continued to launch attacks against Shiite pilgrims over the years . Paris Hilton stirs up a storm in Mecca . Iraq and Afghan vets win in U.S. elections .
No attacks against Shiite pilgrims reported in the last several days , police say . Peace is a marked contrast to last 8 years of Ashura attacks . Ashura marks martyrdom of Hussein , the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed . Comment: