MAKKAH: Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, who is also chairman of the Central Haj Committee, declared the success of the operational plan of the current Umrah season without the registration of any incident that disturbed the spiritual atmosphere at the Grand Mosque.
He called on all participating sectors in the Umrah season to present positive and negative events, in addition to suggestions, to benefit from in development and early preparation for next year’s season.
He congratulated Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman for keenly following up on the situation of the guests of the Grand Mosque and for issuing directives to provide the necessary services to secure pilgrims’ safety and comfort.
He also thanked Crown Prince and Chairman of the Higher Haj Committee Prince Mohammed bin Naif for his support, follow-up and approval of security plans, which had a great role in achieving this success.
Prince Khaled confirmed that the governorate worked in cooperation with all government apparatuses to offer everything possible to facilitate matters for worshippers and Umrah pilgrims, despite the huge increase in their numbers, which exceeded the previous year by 60 percent.
He thanked the Department of Public Security at the Ministry of Interior, which contributed to the success of this year’s plan by offering all possible support and protection to the guests of God, through its personnel who were distributed around the holy capital in general, and the Grand Mosque and its yards in particular. He also thanked all other apparatuses which participated in the success of this season and all media sources, both government and private for broadcasting events in a distinguished manner for the education of Umrah pilgrims through all technical means and in all languages.
In a related matter, the Ministry of Haj and Umrah announced that 679,772 pilgrims are still in Makkah and Madinah out of a total of 6,168,088, who reached the Kingdom since the start of the Umrah season.
The director of the ministry’s branch in Madinah, Mohammad Al-Beijawi, said the monitoring of the grouping program at international ports started after Umrah pilgrims completed their worship.
He said approved international departure flights are done through e-linkage with the departure schedule provided by the General Authority for Civil Aviation.
He pointed out that the center, at the entrance of Prince bin Abdulaziz Airport in Madinah, started its operations with 1,358,686 Umrah pilgrims coming through it, an increase of 16 percent over last year. He announced that the ministry’s branch dealt with 3,665 complaints and reports since the start of the season against Umrah companies.
These were immediately dealt with and finalized at the time; violations were monitored and referred to legal affairs within the ministry.
Umrah season ‘a success’
Umrah season ‘a success’
