Pilgrims head out of Saudi after hajj 'success'
- October 18, 2013, 12:22 pm
- World News
- 103 Views
ATTENTION - UPDATES with quotes of governor, health minister
MINA, Saudi Arabia, Oct 17 (APP/AFP): Some 1.4 million Muslim pilgrims from 188 countries started to leave Saudi Arabia on Thursday at the end of what authorities hailed as a successful and incident-free Hajj.
Mecca's provincial governor, Prince Khaled al-Faisal bin Abdul Aziz, said the 2013 Hajj marked a "qualitative turning point" in the organisation of the annual pilgrimage, marred in previous years by deadly fires and stampedes.
The rites were carried out in a calm atmosphere and free
of any political demonstrations, making it a "success" and
proving "Islam is a religion of peace, civilisation and progress,"
he told reporters.
Although the Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, comes to
a close officially on Friday, pilgrims are allowed to leave a
day early after taking part in the stoning of the devil ritual.
Pilgrims woke up early on Thursday and began stoning
three huge concrete structures in Mina representing Satan
straight after sunrise, in accordance with the teachings of Islam.
In 2006, more than 300 pilgrims were killed in a stampede during the
stoning ritual. More than 250 were killed in a similar incident in 2004.
The deaths prompted the Saudi authorities to invest
billions of dollars in transport and other infrastructure to
facilitate the movement of the huge numbers of people who take part.
After the stoning, pilgrims performed the final
tawaf, or circumambulation, of the Kaaba, in the holy city of Mecca.
Thousands of pilgrims were later seen loading trucks with luggage and
leaving their hotels in Mecca.
The majority of them make the 100-kilometre (60-mile)
journey to Jeddah international airport to take flights back home.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia deployed more than 100,000 troops
to maintain the security of the pilgrims during the hajj.
The authorities declared this year's Hajj a great success
after it finished free of accident or disease.
There had been particular concern about the possible spread
of the MERS virus, which has killed 60 people worldwide, 51 of them
in the kingdom itself.
"Not a single case (of MERS) was detected," Health
Minister Abdallah al-Rabia told reporters.
The overall number of pilgrims at this year's Hajj was just
under two million, sharply down on last year's 3.2 million.
Foreign pilgrims accounted for 1.38 million of them,
compared with 1.75 million in 2012.
Officials said the smaller number contributed to the success.
The pilgrimage was monitored by more than 5,000 cameras
installed at all holy sites, including 1,200 at the Grand
Mosque, managed by the Command and Control Centre for Hajj Security.
Saudi Minister of Hajj Affairs Bandar Hajjar said on
Wednesday that his ministry has been instructed by the king to work
out a 25-year plan to ensure the smooth running of the pilgrimage.
