MINA, 8 January 2006 — Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie said the health condition of pilgrims in general was satisfactory, adding that no epidemic cases have been reported among them so far. He said the ministry had taken adequate precautionary measures to prevent the spread of contagious diseases including bird-flu. He said 98.4 percent pilgrims had taken vaccinations against meningitis.
“We have given vaccination to about 385,000 pilgrims,” he said. The ministry had made available more than 1.5 million meningitis vaccines in different parts of the country for the use of domestic pilgrims.
Squatters Persist
Despite the government’s efforts to stop the phenomenon of squatting of pilgrims during Haj, many of them were found sleeping in public places and under bridges in Mina yesterday. Security officers were, however, strictly checking each and every pilgrim while heading to Mina to make sure whether they were carrying Haj permits. Squatting is done by domestic pilgrims who come individually or in small groups without permits. Saudi authorities were issuing Haj permits yesterday, the last date for such permits, to Saudis and expats intending to perform Haj.
Stones for Jamrat
Many foreign pilgrims, especially women, bring small stones required for the stoning ritual in Mina from their villages, despite instructions given to them by authorities in Saudi Arabia and their countries. According to Islamic scholars, there is nothing wrong in collecting stones before Haj, because collecting stones in Muzdalifa or Mina is not part of Haj rituals.
Husbands of some women pilgrims said their wives had brought stones while coming to the Kingdom as they did not want to haggle for them in Muzdalifa along with a large number of men. Iranian pilgrim Zadallah Murtaza confirmed that many women in his group had brought stones with them for the ritual. Some others staying in Aziziya have gone to Muzdalifa two days ago to collect stones required for the ritual.
British Boy Scouts
Twenty-five British Muslim scouts are performing Haj this year as guests of the Saudi Arabian Scouts Society. More than 22,000 British pilgrims have come for Haj this year, according to Lord Adam Hafiz Patel of Blackburn, who is leading the British Haj mission. He said the majority of the British pilgrims were aged below 35. He commended the efforts being made by Saudi Arabia in the service of pilgrims.
“The Saudi government is doing a great job in managing the huge crowd of more than two million pilgrims every year,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted Lord Patel as saying. Patel, who has been leading the British Haj missions for the past several years, said British pilgrims have been happy with the Kingdom’s Haj service.
Hundreds of Services
Saudi authorities have licensed 717 shops and 130 cold storage trucks to distribute food and beverages in Mina, according to Talal Al-Owaidhi, head of the committee for seasonal shops in the holy sites. “We have allocated 118 locations to different business firms to supply food, meals and other essential commodities,” he said, adding that about 100 places have been allocated to open large bakeries in various parts of the tent city.
The Islamic Development Bank, which is supervising the Kingdom’s sacrificial meat utilization project, has opened its outlets in Mina to sell coupons for sacrificial animals.
Mobily’s Free SMS
Mobile service provider Mobily is offering five free SMS to anywhere in the world to people whose cellular phones are roaming in the Kingdom. The offer is part of the company’s special program prepared for pilgrims. The five SMS messages will be charged to Mobily through agreements signed with over 200 telecommunications services providers worldwide. The telecom giant is also handing out more than 500,000 umbrellas, and two million packets of dates and bottles of water to Hajis this season.
Mobily announced on Wednesday that it had completed its infrastructure project to expand capacity at Makkah and surrounding holy sites. The company can now handle 1.4 million cellular calls simultaneously with the new network that operates independently of the already established infrastructure in the area. The project was completed with technology provided by the Swedish telecom giant Ericsson.
