Saudi mobilised as 2.5 m pilgrims prepare for hajj
Rituals begin today, will peak tomorrow :
Saudi Arabia: Around 2.5 million Muslims begin Friday the
rituals of the hajj pilgrimage, the world’s largest annual assembly,
leaving Saudi authorities with a daunting security and safety challenge.
Saudi authorities have mobilised some 100,000 security and civil defence
personnel to insure a smooth pilgrimage and avoid deadly incidents that
marred the extremely crowded rites in the past.
“We will mobilise all our means to prevent any harm against any
pilgrim or any group of pilgrims,” Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef
bin Abdul Aziz, who recently became the crown prince of the Muslim
kingdom said on Tuesday.
He made the remark during an inspection tour of hajj preparations as
anti-riot and anti-terrorism police paraded in front of the kingdom’s
internal security czar as police and rescue helicopters hovered
overhead.
The hajj rituals begin Friday and peak on Saturday when all pilgrims
assemble in the Arafat plain outside Mecca, and end with Eid al-Adha, or
the Feast of Sacrifice, which will be celebrated on Sunday.
Around 1.7 million Muslims are due to descent on Mecca from around
the world while between 700,000 and 800,000 pilgrims will be coming from
inside Saudi Arabia.
Coping with the world’s largest annual human assembly poses a
security headache for Saudi Arabia — guardian of the two holiest Muslim
shrines in the cities of Mecca and Medina, the birth places of Islam.
The oil kingpin has invested billions of dollars over the years to avoid
deadly stampedes that marred the hajj in the past.
In January 2006, 364 pilgrims were killed in a stampede at the
entrance to a bridge leading to the stoning site in Mina, outside Mecca,
while 251 were trampled to death in 2004.
In July 1990, 1,426 pilgrims were trampled or asphyxiated to death in
a stampede in a tunnel, also in Mina.
The deaths prompted authorities to dismantle the old bridge and
replace it with a multi-level with one-way lanes to ensure a smooth flow
of pilgrims. Saudi Arabia also launched a new $10.6-billion project for
a new extension to Mecca’s Grand Mosque to increase its capacity to two
million worshippers.
Investments also included a light-railway connection linking the holy
sites.
The hajj this year coincides with the Arab Spring democracy protests
that have swept many nations in the region and led so far to the
unseating of three autocratic leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
“My joy has no bounds,” said pilgrim Adel Abu Kasseh of Libya, where
former dictator Moamer Kadhafi was killed last month after an
eight-month armed conflict to unseat him.
“It is the first time that I perform the pilgrimage after my country
was liberated,” he said.
Prince Nayef has insisted that the violence that has gripped some
Arab countries in recent months is an “internal affair”, but he has
stressed that Saudi Arabia was ready for all situations. Mecca,
Thursday, AFP |