COVID: Saudi Arabia’s Hajj and Umrah Minister suggested not sending pilgrims from India this year
new Delhi:
The government has decided that Muslims from India will not travel to Saudi Arabia for the Haj 2020, as the state reported that pilgrims should not be sent in the wake of the coronovirus epidemic on Tuesday, Minister of Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.
He told reporters that Saudi Arabia’s Hajj and Umrah minister Mohammad Saleh bin Taher Benton called last night and suggested not to send pilgrims from India for Hajj this year.
Saudi Arabia said on Monday that it had stopped international visitors from doing Islamic pilgrimage, to control the epidemic of coronavirus virus.
Mr. Naqvi said that 2,13,000 applications have been received for Haj 2020 and the process of returning the entire amount deposited by the applicants without any deduction has been started immediately.
The money will be returned to the bank accounts of the applicants through the online direct benefit transfer mode, the Minister of Minority Affairs said, adding that this would be the first time since independence that pilgrims from India would not go for Haj due to the unprecedented situation. Ubiquitous epidemic.
This year more than 2,300 women had applied to perform Haj without Mehram (male partner) and now they will be allowed to perform Haj in 2021 based on their application this year. Apart from them, more women, who apply to go for Haj without Mehram next year, will also have the facility.
The Narendra Modi government ensured that in 2018 Muslim women could perform Haj without Mehram, after which Mr. Naqvi said that in 2019 a total of 2 lakh Indian Muslims performed Haj, about 50 percent of them performed Haj. Are women.
In a statement, Saudi Arabia’s Hajj Ministry and Umrah said that due to the risk of the coronovirus epidemic and the spread of crowded places and large gatherings, it has been decided that Hajj will be conducted for this year, under which “very limited The number will be “pilgrims from different countries who already live in Saudi Arabia will be able to demonstrate it.
“To ensure that Hajj is carried out safely from the point of view of public health, following all preventive measures and necessary social removal protocols,” the statement said.
Mr. Naqvi said while respecting the Saudi government’s decision to take into account the serious challenges of the coronovirus epidemic and the health and well-being of the people, it was decided that Muslims from India would not go to Saudi Arabia to perform Haj this year.
He said that the whole world is facing challenges from the coronavirus epidemic and Saudi Arabia has also been affected.
Haj 2020 is proposed in late July and early August.
Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, which every Muslim is required to complete at least once in their lifetime if they are healthy enough and have the means to do so.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and published from a syndicated feed.)
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