Haj pilgrims News

Pakistani pilgrims undertaking Haj pilgrimage in Mecca faced severe hardship due to official negligence, with reports of broken suitcases, inedible food, and lack of care.  

Umrah is a pilgrimage to the holy site that can be undertaken at any time of the year, while the annual Hajj pilgrimage has specific months according to the lunar calendar.

The Hajj pilgrims carry Zamzam water from the Zamzam well at Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.

The Centre has ended the “deceit of Haj subsidy” with decisive honesty and transparency, Naqvi said while inaugurating a two-day ‘orientation-cum-training programme’ for Haj 2019 deputationists in the national capital. 

India has a Haj quota of 1.70 lakh. Out of this, 1.25 lakh pilgrims travel through Haj Committee of India, while the rest through private tour operators from 21 embarkation points.

The Haj Committee of India has initiated an orientation training programme for Kashmiri pilgrims ahead of this year`s `Haj` to Mecca.

The first batch of 340 pilgrims left from Telangana for Saudi Arabia on Sunday to perform the Haj pilgrimage.

Nearly 6,500 pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir would perform Haj this year and the first batch would leave for Saudi Arabia on August 10, officials said on Thursday.

After the stampede tragedy in Saudi Arabia, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Thursday that the government would provide all help to Indian nationals.

 Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday expressed deep shock and distress over the deaths and injuries in a stampede in Mecca.

Saudi Arabia will not allow any political propaganda during this year's Haj and those trying to violate the pilgrimage's sanctity will be arrested, the crown prince has said apparently referring to attempts to use Islam's holiest site to highlight the situation in strife-torn Syria and Yemen.

Jumaa Ibrahim and his wife Hasnaa Karam, a Syrian couple in their early 60s, arrived in Mecca on Friday, and headed straight to Islam's holiest site, the cube-shaped Kaaba.

 The collapse of a construction crane that killed 107 people at Mecca`s Grand Mosque was "an act of God" and not due to a technical fault, an engineer for the developer said Saturday.