Over 2 million Muslim pilgrims started moving at sunrise yesterday toward Mount Arafat to perform the central rite of hajj, the annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca.
In the aftermath of the death of 76 people on Thursday in the collapse of an aging hostel in the heart of Mecca, a senior Saudi official said the kingdom has prepared itself to deal with major potential emergencies during the hajj including fires, stampedes, torrential rain, food poisoning, terror acts and even chemical attacks.
Although some pilgrims, especially Egyptians, had arrived in Arafat the day before, the great majority flocked from the valley of Mina, to the north, where they had spent the night huddled under tents or camped out on the streets with their mats and blankets.
PHOTO: AP
Tracing a journey made by the Prophet Mohammed more than 1,400 years ago, pilgrims were to gather yesterday for an emotional assembly in Arafat, a small plain about 250m above sea level surrounded by mountains on all sides.
They will pray for mercy and forgiveness at the scene of the prophet's last sermon and in a place where some believe Adam and Eve reunited after they were banished by God from paradise, according to the Bible.
The rite of wukuf, or standing, before sunset on Arafat is the high point of the hajj and without which it would be considered incomplete.
More than 1.55 million foreign pilgrims of 177 nationalities are taking part, up 1.2 percent from the previous pilgrimage, Deputy Interior Minister Prince Mohammad bin Nayef Bin Abdel Aziz said.
"This does not include Saudis, foreigners living in Saudi and pilgrims coming on their own outside the tours," Interior Ministry Spokesman Major General Mansur al-Turki said, suggesting an estimate of 2.5 million may be close.
He said the exact number would only be known today when pilgrims begin flocking back to Mina to perform the hajj's most dangerous ritual involving the stoning of three pillars symbolizing Satan's powers.
"This year we drafted a special plan to channel pilgrims to jamarat," said Turki using the the Arabic term for the pillars.
He said pedestrian traffic would move on three main roads while two new tunnels were added to transport pilgrims in buses to the area, which has been the scene of several tragedies, such as a stampede in 2004 that killed 251 and another in 1990 that killed 1,426.
Almost 60,000 security, health, emergency and other personnel are involved in organizing the hajj this year, trying to ensure none of the deadly incidents that have marred it in recent years are repeated.
Also, 14 hospitals and dozens of clinics and field facilities are ready to deal with any contingency.
also see story:
`Hajj' good for the carpet business
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
Chinese authorities are snuffing out any remembrance of the deadly 1989 military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, which happened 37 years ago yesterday, in a further tightening of a years-long campaign to erase what happened from public memory. Police told relatives of the victims they would not be allowed to visit a cemetery in Beijing on the anniversary of the crackdown, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Relatives of the victims visited the cemetery on the anniversary for more than 30 years to read memorial statements with police keeping watch, Amnesty International said. Hundreds of people,
RSS