First hajj flight to depart from Kabul on May 20

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs on Sunday said 30,000 people from Afghanistan would perform this year’s hajj pilgrimage and the first flight to Saudi Arabia would depart on May 20.

Acting Hajj and Religious Affairs Minister Sheikh Noor Mohammad Saqib told a gathering in Kabul that those performing this year’s hajj would include common people, government officials, heirs of martyrs and disabled people and refugees.

He said the pilgrimage would cost 3,924 dollars (340,000 afghanis) per pilgrim this year. He added that this year Saudi Arabia had granted quota of 30,000 people to Afghanistan.

Saqib said he had talked to Saudi officials and requested them to give a quota of about 45000 people to Afghanistan.

The minister said collection points for pilgrims on zone level had been equipped and repaired and hajj flights would be conducted from four zones (Kabul, Herat, Balkh and Kandahar) this year.

He also said a contract had been signed with private Kam Air airlines to airlift Afghan pilgrims to Saudi Arabia where contracts had been signed with companies to provide accommodation, transport and other facilities to Afghan pilgrims.

He said 652 guides would lead the pilgrims this year. Saqib said: “Intending pilgrims who have already registered and paid one installment and now their turn has arrived, they should pay the second installment as soon as possible and the new pilgrims should also register themselves and pay the money.”

Addressing the meeting, MoHR financial and administrative director Maulvi Abdul Wali Haqqani said that this year, 1,000 Afghan refugees living in other countries had been given the opportunity to perform this year’s hajj.

He said hajj was a religious obligation and men and women had been given equal rights. He said that 74,000 people registered their names in previous years, but only 20,000 performed hajj.

He said the first flight of pilgrims would depart from Kabul to Saudi Arabia on May 20.

It should be noted that last year, Saudi Arabia gave Afghanistan a quota of 13,582 pilgrims.

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