Arrival of foreign pilgrims gains momentum

The civil aviation authorities have notified the Haj Ministry that only two entry points have been designated to receive pilgrims by air: the Prince Mohammed bin Abddulaziz International Airport in Madinah and King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah. In the past many private tour operators from South Asian countries sent individual pilgrims through the King Fahd International Airport in Dammam and King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. "But this year, Haj pilgrims will only be allowed entry into the Kingdom through the airports in Jeddah and Madinah," Khalid Al-Khaibary of the Civil Aviation authority said, Arab News reports. Some 101,814 pilgrims arrived in the Kingdom by Thursday from different parts of the world and with 26,001 pilgrims, the Indian contingent forms the largest block, according to statistics of the Haj Ministry. "The Indian pilgrims arrived in Madinah on 91 flights," said Indian Consul General B.S. Mubarak. He said that due to heavy floods in Kashmir, flights from Srinagar had been temporarily suspended and would be rescheduled. The consul general accompanied by Haj Consul Mohammad Noor Rahman Shaikh visited the Indian pilgrims on Thursday night to check on the food services and other arrangements in Madinah. The consul general said that this year the Indian Haj mission has made arrangements for food catering services for the pilgrims during their stay in Madinah, adding that "providing catering services to pilgrims is a challenging job." He pointed out that the Indian Haj mission was only providing these catering services in Madinah and not in Makkah. Mubarak confirmed that the pilgrims had started to move to Makkah as scheduled and iterated that the Indian Haj mission is working around the clock to serve the pilgrims in the holy cities.