Project To Secure Safety of Pilgrims
By Sobrina Rosli

Bandar Seri Begawan - Bruneian pilgrims who are currently performing the haj or planning in the future to go for haj or umrah should feel more at ease in going as there are a few projects in Mina that is aimed at further ensuring the safety of pilgrims.

Acting-Director of the Department of Haj Affairs under the Ministry of Religious Affairs Pg Mustapa Pg Aliuddin said: "The changes would definitely ease the flow because there will be designated places of embarkation and exit points for pilgrims who are performing haj or umrah rituals."

"Problems are notably known to arise during the stoning of `jamarat' in Mina, as many other pilgrims who are waiting for the stoning ritual have been sleeping and camping near the ritual areas and this causes the other pilgrims who have just arrived to face difficulty in entering the areas, as the way of entering is the same way as exiting," he added.

"We have been told that all haj missionaries from all over the country would be invited by the Saudi government to visit the places of changes to ensure we know exactly where the changes would be and the ways the pilgrims would take for a smoother flow," he further pointed out.

The changes included the new multilevel Jamarat Bridge, where the underground floor would be designated for emergency cases. It would repose the movement of the injured pilgrims to the hospital through a connected tunnel without disturbing other pilgrims who were performing their stoning, he said.

On Monday evening, the Saudi authorities confirmed that more than a million pilgrims had arrived in the holy cities of Mekah and Madinah and that the number would continue to increase in hundreds of thousands.

The number of pilgrims from the sultanate cannot be confirmed by the authorities but based on the six flights chartered by the organisers, that number is estimated to be more than a thousand. The acting charge d'affairs at the Saudi embassy here, Yahya al-Qahtani, said in a statement here yesterday that the Souk alArab and Jawhara tunnels in the western side of the Jamarat had also been extended, with a two0-kilometre link between King Faisal Tunnel and the Rabita road already constructed. The link started from the Khayf Mosques in the east of the Jamarat and ended at the Sedaqi Street in the west side, he said.

The changes in the surroundings of the Jamarat bridge had been made to ensure the safety of pilgrims because pilgrims would no longer be able to sleep or camp there posing a serious threat to the safety of those going to or returning from the Jamarat, he added.

The last stampede in Mina killed 345 pilgrims and wounded 289 others on January 12, 2006. Al-Qahtani said that to ensure the ease of the flow of the pilgrims to their transportation, two bus depots that could accommodate 500 buses had also been constructed. Part of the northern hills in the western part of the Jamarat had been levelled to speed up the construction' of a road starting from the King Fahd Road. Al-Qahtani said the construction of an eight-storey medical tower had also' been completed.

The construction of six 12-floored residential towers at the foot of the Mina hills was now still under way, he said.

Haj or pilgrimage to Mekah is the fifth tenet of Islam. Every able Muslim who can afford to go on haj is obliged to make the pilgrimage at least once in his/ her lifetime. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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