Two Million On Haj Pilgrimage

Dubai (dpa) - Two million Muslims gathered Friday in the Saudi town of Mina, five kilometres from Mecca, for prayer and meditation at the start of the five-day Haj pilgrimage.

The Civil Defence Department has deployed 9,300 officers, including firefighters and rescue workers to the western Arabian city.

Police reinforcements have been deployed at the entrances to Mecca, Islam’s holiest place and on the roads leading to the holy sites.

Some 1,000 surveillance cameras have been installed en roads leading to the holy places to enable security forces to observe pilgrims and intervene if necessary.

Men dressed in identical seamless white garb called `ihram' and women covered from head to toe were making their way towards Mina Friday.

Twenty thousand buses were due to transport some 1.5 million pilgrims from Mecca to Mina after the Muslim night prayer on Friday, although many pilgrims chose to walk.

The pilgrims will spend the day in prayer in Mina which has been transformed into a site of fireproof tents. Before dawn on Saturday, the faithful will move toward Mount Arafat, a site revered in Islam for the culmination of the Haj, symbolising the Final Judgment.

Pilgrims will return to Mina Sunday after spending the night in the town of Muzdalifa to stone the Jamrat or pillars representing the devil.

This ritual is follow by the slaughter of a camel, sheep or cow marking the beginning of a three-day holiday in the Muslim world called Eidal-Adha or Feast of Sacrifice.

More than 10,000 food outlets have been set up. Bakeries are equipped to make 10 million loaves of bread a day.

The Saudi Ministry of Health has put in place plans to contain contagious diseases.

"We have opened 29 health centres in Mina, 46 in Arafat and six in Muzdalifah", said an official from the ministry quoted by Saudi newspapers.

"We have huge stockpiles of medicines to combat any outbreak of disease but there are no reports of any contagious diseases among the pilgrim," the official added.

Local temperatures range from 17 to 32 degrees Celsius (63 and 90 Fahrenheit} making life easier for pilgrims. In past years, temperatures could rose more than 40 degrees Celsius.

Haj is one of the five pillars of Islam and mandatory for every able person who can afford it. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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