MINA, Feb 20: The world’s largest congregation of over two million faithful began on Wednesday at the tented city of Mina, some 3km from Makkah, chanting talbiyah as Haj, 1422 Hijra, got under way.
About 1.5 million faithful came from over 160 countries, including 121,952 from Pakistan and 20,000 from Afghanistan.
Pakistanis represented the second largest contingent (9.85 per cent of the total pilgrims) this year after Indonesia, which has sent 198,544 pilgrims. Other major national contingents included 117,176 from India, 103,000 from Turkey, 91,000 from Iran and 88,000 from Egypt.
The pilgrims would move early Thursday to stand on the plains of Arafat to mark the climax of the Haj. They will stay there until sunset before moving over to the valley of Muzdalifa and spending the night there in the open before returning to their tents in Mina Friday morning.
Maintaining the law and order during Haj this year is one of the major concerns for the authorities of the Kingdom, as the congregation is taking place in a disturbing environment for the entire Muslim world. Muslim rejection of the United States for its backing of Israel has been fuelled in recent months by a backlash in the West against Muslims and Arabs following the Sept 11 events. Saudi officials have vowed to prevent any fall out from Sept 11 events marring the Haj proceedings. “We have taken enough precautions for all eventualities during the Haj. Our hope is that all Muslims will honour the sanctity of this important event. But if anything goes wrong, God forbid, we are prepared to confront it,” Prince Naif told the press in Makkah earlier this week.
Referring to reports that the US administration had sought the Kingdom’s permission to monitor the Haj in an effort to ward off any likely mischief by the al Qaeda, Prince Naif, the head of the Supreme Council responsible for Haj arrangements, said: “Nobody will dare make such a request.”
The authorities have deployed about 1,500 surveillance cameras in Makkah and surrounding sites to maintain order. They have also mobilized over 60,000 employees and volunteers, in addition to 20,000 soldiers and security personnel, for the Haj.
Temperatures in Makkah and other holy sites are expected to vary between 33 and 35 Celsius during the Haj days. The local Meteorological Environmental Protection Agency has forecast possible rains on Friday and Saturday.
Some 21 hospitals and 300 medical centres, with 7,000 beds, have been set up in and around Makkah and Madina to cater to the needs of the pilgrims. About 50 specialist doctors have been contracted this year to man 15 intensive care units.
Many intending pilgrims from Gabon were earlier refused to board a flight to the Kingdom for fear of spreading the Ebola virus during Haj.
As cooking is banned and cooking gas also prohibited to be used in the holy sites, to prevent any occurrence of fire that has caused many deaths and injuries in recent past, the Saudi commerce ministry has geared up to supply almost 10 million meals, three million cartons of fruits juice and 10 million kilograms of fresh fruits in the holy sites during the Haj season.