Hassan Cheruppa
Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — With the Tent City geared up to receive around two million pilgrims, Haj missions of different countries applied finishing touches to their preparations and arrangements so as to enable their pilgrims reach the holy sites on time and perform their rituals in ease and comfort.
Pilgrims living in the central Haram area (markaziyah) in Makkah and Aziziyah have begun streaming into the Mina valley after Isha prayers on Wednesday. Most pilgrims started moving to Mina in buses arranged by tawafa organizations while some others preferred moving on foot. Hundreds of thousands of domestic pilgrims are joining about 1.4 million foreign pilgrims in the tent city Thursday, making final preparations for their standing (wuqoof) on the plains of Arafat on Friday marking the climax of Haj.
Almost all the Haj missions have readied a meticulously designed and flawless operation plan for the movement of pilgrims to Arafat after spending Thursday in the tent city, located around 8 km east of the Grand Mosque. The pilgrims, following the footsteps of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), will spend the day, called Tarwiyah day, engaged in supplications and taking rest in their 45,000 fire-proof tents and other accommodation.
Speaking to Saudi Gazette, Indian Consul General B.S. Mubarak and Haj Consul Sheikh Md. Noor Rahman said that the pilgrims started moving to Mina in accordance with a well-chalked out operation plan. More than 100,000 of Indian pilgrims moved to Mina from the nearby Aziziyah town. They included 65,000 government pilgrims who have opted Aziziyah accommodation in addition to 36,000 private pilgrims who came back to Makkah on Monday and Tuesday after completing the Madinah ziyara. Around 35,000 pilgrims who have green category accommodation in markaziya have begun to flock to Mina after Isha prayers. “Our team members are facilitating the movement of pilgrims by lending all support to muallims who are responsible for their transportation. There are 50 pilgrims in hospitals and all arrangements have been made to take them to Arafat,” Mubarak said, adding that three pilgrims in Makkah are on ventilators and one in serious condition in Madinah and they are not in a position to be taken to Arafat.
Two third of Indian government pilgrims are staying in Aziziyah. Out of the total 263 residential buildings hired by the Indian mission, 180 are in Aziziyah. “Most of these buildings are new and pilgrims are very happy and there have seldom been complaints about their transportation to and fro between Haram and their accommodation,” said M.S. Sheikh Sulaiman, who has been working as the consulate in charge of Aziziyah transportation ever since the mission started picking Aziziyah accommodation for pilgrims in 2005. There are hundreds of buses plying between Haram and Aziziyah round the clock and there is one bus for every 390 pilgrim.
The Indian Haj camp is located near the second metro station between King Khaled and King Abdullah flyovers on Jawhara Street,1.6 km from Jamrat. Rahman said that the camp, which consists of 68 tents, houses accommodation for the mission officials, including ambassador and consul general, a dispensary, help desk, lost pilgrims assistance center, ambulances, Jamrat task force, and accommodation for a large number of pilgrims. Pilgrims will be under muallims of 28 maktabs and they have made all the arrangements to distribute food among the pilgrims in Mina. Like last year, all Indian pilgrims will have Mashair train facility. The mission has prepared well in advance location maps of Indian Haj camps in Mina and Arafat, he added.
