BAGHDAD — Some residents of the primarily Sunni city of Samarra have long felt anxious about a perceived rise in the number of Shiites there. These feelings were amplified recently when throngs of Shiite visitors crowded the streets to commemorate the martyrdom of the 10th imam, Ali al-Hadi (829-868).

Sami-al-Masoudi, a Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) leader, said April 2 that more than 1.5 million people came to Samarra during the observance. The strong Shiite presence during the occasion revived Sunni fears of Shiite dominance.

Some Sunnis even allege that the Shiite Endowment, which manages Shiite religious landmarks, has confiscated properties of the Sunni Endowment. An official of the latter told Arab media outlets April 6, “There have been attempts to falsify property documents of mosques in Baghdad, Diyala and Samarra, in the real estate registration departments, and transfer their ownership to the Shiite endowment in the absence of their rightful owners.”

There has been a demographic change in the predominantly Sunni city, which is also home to the shrine of the 11th Shiite imam, Hasan al-Askari, and the cellar where Imam al-Mahdi, known as the hidden imam, is said to have disappeared.