MINA, 24 February — Sixty-five children were reported lost in Mina, Muzdalifa and Arafat, but the Ulema blamed the parents who continued to ignore the advisory not to bring children for the Haj. How could they concentrate their attention on prayers if they kept worrying about their children’s whereabouts, the scholars asked.
The Okaz daily interviewed a number of pilgrims on this issue and many were of the view that the Kingdom would have to consider a new regulation restricting parents from bringing children to the ritual sites. This is necessary to ensure safety and security of the pilgrims and avoid time and effort in the laborious lost-and-found operations.
Dr. Abdul Rahman, a physician assigned to a medical unit in Mina, said that keeping the annual pilgrimage out of bounds for children would also enhance the overall scope and quality of health care. “A more worrying factor is that children are vulnerable to epidemics and infectious diseases such as meningitis,” he said.
