MAKKAH, 29 January 2004 — The holy city of Makkah was crowded with nearly two million pilgrims from around the world as the faithful prepared for the annual pilgrimage that begins tomorrow.
The Grand Mosque, which has a capacity of one million pilgrims, overflowed with worshipers at each of the five daily prayers. Even streets leading to the mosque were crowded with praying pilgrims.
The authorities have increased security for the five-day event, deploying additional forces in Makkah and the other holy sites to help pilgrims perform their religious duties in peace and security.
On Tuesday, Interior Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Haj Committee Prince Naif inspected the final preparations and issued a strong warning against anybody trying to undermine Haj security. “We are ready for anything that could happen,” he told a press conference in the tent city of Mina.
Many streets leading to the Grand Mosque have been closed to public transportation to facilitate the pilgrims’ movements within the city.
There are at least four checkpoints on the Jeddah-Makkah Expressway which stop suspicious vehicles. The authorities have warned that domestic pilgrims who do not carry Haj permits would be sent back from the checkpoints.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims were seen circumambulating the Holy Kaaba in the center of the Grand Mosque as they performed Umrah before Haj.
“We are in the safest place on earth and in God’s hands,” said an Egyptian woman who is performing the pilgrimage for the first time.
About 1.4 million foreign pilgrims have arrived in the Kingdom to take part in the Haj. “More than 1.39 million pilgrims arrived up to Tuesday evening,” said Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Sajeeni, director general of the Passports Department.
Maj. Gen. Sajeeni said 1.226 million had arrived by plane, 140,633 by land and 23,657 by sea. Last year an all-time record of 1.431 million Muslims arrived for Haj from more than 170 countries.
The government has improved measures to avoid stampedes and fires.
“Any gathering of this many people in a limited geographical area can lead to problems but we have plans to prevent them,” Haj Minister Iyad Madani said.
The main trouble spot in the past has been the Jamrat Bridge where pilgrims flock on the last three days of Haj to throw stones at three pillars representing the devil.
“We have begun to bring pilgrims to the Jamrat on the basis of a specific timetable so that everyone doesn’t come to the bridge at one time,” the minister said.
“The other step is to prevent cars completely from entering the Jamrat area so there is no mix of cars and people,” he added. “We hope these measures together will stop incidents,” he explained.
Madani said measures had been taken to prevent domestic pilgrims without Haj permits from entering the holy sites. “We have also taken steps to close down unlicensed domestic pilgrim service offices,” he added.
