MAKKAH: Officials of the Haj delegations of various African countries said the sincere efforts made by the Saudi government for the comfort and safety of pilgrims made this year’s Haj a great success.
“The vast expansion works undertaken in the area of the Grand Mosque and the holy sites made the Haj very safe and comfortable,” Muhammad Bello, chairman of the National Haj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), said while speaking at a reception organized by the Tawafah Establishment for Non-Arab African Pilgrims (TENAAP) for the heads and officials of the African Haj delegations in Makkah yesterday.
The participants in the function included Adil Balkhair, assistant undersecretary at the Haj Ministry and Sahl Sabban, assistant undersecretary for holy sites affairs.
Addressing the gathering, Balkhair lauded the role of Haj delegations from various countries in achieving the goals of the annual event.
Abdul Wahid Saifuddin, chairman of the TENAAP, said the Saudi authorities spared no effort to serve pilgrims in every possible manner. In his speech Saifuddin stressed the significance of arranging repeated awareness campaigns for pilgrims before they left their respective countries.
“The campaigns give the pilgrims a clear idea of how they should perform their rituals correctly besides instructing them on the precautionary steps they should take to guarantee their physical safety,” Saifuddin said.
The chairman of the establishment also called on the airlines companies to make a hassle-free schedule for the pilgrims’ return journey.
He added that his organization has already started the preparations for next year’s Haj.
The Tawafah establishment provides all necessary services to pilgrims such as receiving them on their arrival in Makkah, issuing them identity cards, safekeeping their travel documents and taking them for tawaf. The establishment also supervises their residential arrangements, medical care and religious instructions.
It is also the responsibility of the establishment to provide tents in Mina and Arafat besides arranging transportation to Arafat and back. Another very important task of the establishment is to take pilgrims for the stone-throwing ritual on a previously prepared schedule and returning them back to their tents.
Finally, the establishment takes the pilgrims back to the airport for their return journey and ensures that none of the pilgrims stay back in the Kingdom beyond their period of stay. In another message, the chairman of NAHCON thanked Saifuddin on behalf of the Nigerian pilgrims for the cooperation and support extended by TENAAP.
