Hajj: Over 400 pilgrims land in city

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru

Karnataka Hajj Committee (KHC) said that over 400 pilgrims returned from the Hajj to the city on the weekend.

KHC chairman Raufuddin Kacheriwala said that the pilgrims who landed at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) constituted the first batch of returnees to the state. He added that Hajj committee pilgrims usually return earlier than those that make use of private travel agencies.

However, 100 pilgrims did not receive their luggage upon arrival and were informed that their belongings would be returned to them on Tuesday. “About 439 people returned landed in Bengaluru on Saturday. They are from Karnataka and hail from different districts,” Kacheriwala said. He added that they returned from Saudi Airlines.

The KHC chairman said that the Hajj had been relatively free of obstructions after about two years on account of the pandemic, adding that he had been satisfied with the results. “It was very good this time around. It was challenging though. After two years of Covid, people were headed to Hajj. The Indian government had imposed a lot of conditions. A negetive RTPCR (Real-Time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain) had to be produced 72 hours before. We faced additional preparation on that account.

‘Covid conditions proved challenging’

“We (Karnataka) send around 3,100 Hajjis (pilgrims), they all returned negative tests and they could continue on to the Hajj. People from other states returned negative tests and could not travel. We had been given work that had to be completed in 30 days. Usually, we did the same amount of work in three months. Be it vaccination, training or qurrah (the drawing of lots to select which applicants would make it). We would do this work, apart from training and awareness on vaccination at least two months before. Instead we did this in 20 days or so. This was also challenging.

“We also faced Covid conditions. Thirdly, in a short time, we had to send off a lot of pilgrims. Instead of 300 a day, we had to send 900 people a day. We arranged for two flights a day,” Kacheriwala said.

He conceded that expenses were high and that instead of 35 lakh pilgrims, Saudi authorities admitted only 10 lakh, but insisted that this had resulted greater comfort for the travellers as they had to share their rooms with a single person, rather than three or four.