MAKKAH: Enormous cro­wds of worshippers thron­ged Makkah on Friday for the biggest Haj in years, with more than two million expected to brave the scorching Saudi Arabian heat.

Pilgrims in white robes and sandals packed the ancient city, now dotted with luxury hotels and air-conditioned shopping malls, after flooding in on planes, buses and trains for the annual rites.

This year’s Haj — one of the world’s biggest annual religious gatherings, with a tragic history of stampedes and other disasters — could break attendance records, officials said.

“As the Haj draws near, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia prepares... for the largest Islamic gathering in history,” Minister for Haj and Umrah Tawfiq Al-Rabiah said in a video aired by the ministry this week.

More than two million people from more than 160 countries will perform Haj this year, Rabiah said — a dramatic increase from last year, when numbers were capped at one million post-pandemic.

PIA completes pre-Haj operation with 94pc regularity

In 2019, about 2.5m people took part. Only 10,000 were allowed in 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, rising to nearly 59,000 a year later.

‘Unbelievable feeling’

Travellers from around the world have been pouring into Jeddah’s modernised airport, some of them using streamlined visa services to disembark from planes straight onto buses to their accommodation.

Some 24,000 buses will be in service to ferry the pilgrims, as well as 17 trains capable of moving 72,000 people every hour, officials said.

“It is an unbelievable feeling that is very emotional,” Souad bin Oueis, a 60-year-old Moro­ccan pilgrim, said after arriving on her first visit to Saudi Arabia along with her husband.

This Haj will be the biggest since the requirement for women to be accompanied by male guardians was dropped in 2021. This year, the maximum age limit has also been scrapped, meaning thousands of elderly will be among those contending with Saudi summer temperatures that are expected to reach 44 degrees Celsius.

Heat risks

Pilgrimages are a major source of income for Saudi Arabia, which is embarking on an ambitious plan to overhaul its largely oil-dependent economy. The Haj and Umrah generate an estimated $12 billion annually.

An expansion project that involves scaling up infrastructure and transport supporting Makkah and Madina is a key part of the economic plan as the country looks to increase visitor numbers.

This year’s summer timing for the Haj will test the endurance of worshippers during the four-day, mostly outdoor ritual.

More than 32,000 health workers will be on hand to help fend off heatstroke, dehydration and exhaustion.

But severe weather is just one of the risks at an event that has been hit by deadly incidents from stampedes to militant attacks. Just eight years ago in 2015, as many as 2,300 worshippers died in a stampede during the “stoning of the devil” ritual in Mina, near Makkah, the worst Haj disaster ever.

More than 700 people died in a notorious attack in 1979, when hundreds of gunmen demanding the abdication of the Saudi royal family barricaded themselves inside the Grand Mosque, taking dozens of pilgrims hostage.

Ahead of the Haj, security forces held a military parade in Makkah, including soldiers in full camouflage holding automatic weapons.

PIA Haj flights

Pakistan International Airlines’ pre-Haj operation of transporting intending pilgrims to Saudi Arabia has been successfully completed with over 94 per cent regularity, a PIA spokesman said on Friday.

He said PIA had transported more than 61,467 intending pilgrims to Saudi Arabia through 268 Haj and regular scheduled flights. The spokesman said that PIA CEO Amir Hayat

congratulated PIA Haj teams and departments for the successful operation.

PIA’s pre-Haj operation, which commenced on May 21, concluded on June 22, said the spokesman.

The airline operated direct flights from Karachi, Islama­bad, Lahore, Multan, Faisala­bad, Sialkot and Peshawar. Intending pilgrims from Sukkur, Rahim Yar Khan and Quetta were transported via flights from Karachi.

The airline’s post-Haj operation will commence on July 2 and conclude on Aug 2, said the spokesman.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2023