213 Haj pilgrims leave for Jeddah; 2 flights from tomorrow

Srinagar, Nov 23 (UNI) As many as 213 Haj pilgrims, including 105 women, from Jammu and Kashmir left here for Jeddah today.

They were seen off at the Srinagar airport by Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir Bashrat Ahmed Dhar and other senior officials.

Yesterday, 217 pilgrims, including 102 women, had left here for Saudi Arabia to perform Haj this year.

Later, Mr Dhar told UNI that two Haj flights would be operated from tomorrow till November 29.

This has been done to advance the departure of those Haj pilgrims who were scheduled to leave for Jeddah after December 15, he added.

Mr Dhar said the state has been allotted an additional quota of 4000 and the process of getting passports and other documents required for their pilgrimage would start on a war-footing.

This is in addition to the already allotted quota of 6,674, he said, adding additional flights would be operated from December 9 to airlift the pilgrims to Jeddah.

As such, 10,674 pilgrims would be able to perform the Haj this year as compared to 9,200 in 2005.

The Divisional Commissioner said the state administration had sought helicopter from the Indian Air Force (IAF) to evacuate about 12 stranded pilgrims from Gurez, which has been cut off from the rest of the Valley due to heavy snowfall over the past few days.

He said the chopper was sent twice to bring here the stranded pilgrims, but had to return due to bad weather and low visibility at the Razdan Pass. As many as 15 Haj pilgrims from Gurez had already reached here for their departure to Jeddah tomorrow.

Mr Dhar said the administration has requested the Haj pilgrims from far-flung areas of the state to reach Srinagar a week before to avoid any delay in their departure for Jeddah.

UNI AG MIR BST2045