New Delhi

Wearing facial masks, around 60,000 pilgrims have converged in the tent city of Mina since Sunday to embark on the spiritual journey of Hajj in Saudi Arabia. This is the second year of a scaled-down Hajj pilgrimage to the Muslim’s holiest sites in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Saudi Ministry of Hajj has introduced for the first time Hajj smart cards and smart bracelets that would enable the pilgrims to reach their tents at the holy sites and hotels in Makkah with the minimum possible human contact and facilitate their transportation in the holy sites.

 The card will also help in tracing any pilgrim in the event of losing contact with him. The authorities also started using black and white robots to distribute bottles of Zamzam water among pilgrims so as to ensure social distancing.

According to reports in Saudi media, the pilgrim city was rend with religious slogans “Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik (O God, here I am answering your call)..,” While men came draped in unstitched white clothing the women pilgrims wore white abayas.

Mina is located 7 km northeast of the Grand Mosque.
The Saudi authorities have readied a meticulously designed and flawless operation plan for the movement of pilgrims to Arafat.
On Monday the pilgrims move toward Arafat where they offer prayers.

For Muslims, Hajj is an obligation towards their religion and any able-bodied person who can afford it must perform it once in a lifetime.

Before heading towards Mina, pilgrims entered the state of ihram, where they prepare themselves spiritually and change into seamless white garments.

Saudi authorities have made extensive preparations for managing such a large congregation amidst the Covid pandemic. There are a total of 3,000 buses to transport pilgrims, and each bus carries only 20 pilgrims.

Pilgrims started arriving in Mina in the early hours of Sunday.A total area of 729,049 square meters has been set aside for the accommodation of pilgrims in the tent city. An area of 4.37 square meters was allocated for each pilgrim who came under the Distinguished Hospitality Package in Mina towers, while an area of 4 square meters was allocated for each pilgrim in the Hospitality Package in Mina camps, as well as an area of 5.33 square meters was allocated for a pilgrim in the Distinguished Hospitality Package in the Mina camps.

A total of 60,000 Saudis and expatriates have been selected from among 558,000 applicants to perform the pilgrimage this year, as compared to about 2.5 million pilgrims who performed the pilgrimage in 2019 before the outbreak of the pandemic. 

This year’s Hajj is limited to pilgrims, between the ages of 18 and 65 years, and who do not have chronic diseases. Last year, Saudi Arabia organized the smallest pilgrimage in terms of the number of participants in modern history.