The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony on Wednesday said that 3,919 pilgrims arrived in Saudi Arabia in the last three days. Talking to media, the ministry’s spokesperson Muhammad Umar Butt said that 1,710 pilgrims were scheduled to leave for Madina on Wednesday by eight flights, including four from Islamabad and one each from Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Multan.
He further said that on Thursday 1,330 more pilgrims would leave for the holy land through five Hajj flights. Hajj operation consisting of 106 flights would continue till June 30, he said. Umar said that accommodation had been arranged in Haji camps for the convenience of pilgrims coming from far flung areas of the country.
He said that vaccines, tickets, visas, identity pendants and passports were being provided to the pilgrims at the camps. The ministry, he said, had already deputed its staffers at the airports of Makkah and Madina for the assistance of pilgrims, while hospitals and dispensaries had also been set up in Makkah, Madina and Jeddah under the Pakistan Hajj Medical Mission.
The spokesman said that police, Rescue 1122 officials and civil servants were managing the accommodation, food and transport. Wthe department of disappearances, helpline, Haram guides, monitoring and arrangements for arrival and departure to Madina were being observed by the religious affairs ministry’s staffers.
He made it clear that all the welfare staff deployed under the religious affairs ministry was consisted of the government employees.—INP
