Saudi Gazette report

MAKKAH — The Grand Mosque Special Security Force personnel are exerting distinctive efforts and setting magnificent examples of dealing kindly with the visitors to the Grand Mosque, including Umrah performers and worshipers.

Their functions include organizing the faithful, maintaining security, helping the needy, providing guidance, and facilitating and streamlining the movement of worshipers and Umrah performers inside the Grand Mosque.

It also includes, organizing the flow of the faithful entering the Grand Mosque, monitoring implementing the precautionary and preventive measures against COVID-19 and guiding the worshipers, visitors, and Umrah performers on the importance of implementing the precautionary measures to ensure their safety and of all around them.

While carrying out their duties and tasks during the holy month of Ramadan, around the clock in shifts, the security men discern the importance and greatness of the time and place, so they exert their utmost to ensure that all abide by the precautionary, preventive and regulatory measures to guarantee everybody’s safety, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said Friday.

The Grand Mosque Security Force personnel are intensifying their security presence through three-pronged plans prepared beforehand.

They include the security aspect that is concerned with safeguarding the security and safety of the visitors to the Grand Mosque, while following up the implementation of the precautionary and preventive measures to prevent any chances of contracting or spreading the COVID-19 virus.

The organizational axis of the plan focuses on the organization and grouping of worshipers inside the Grand Mosque and in its piazzas, and following up on the implementation of the mandatory social distancing while performing Umrah rites in the Tawaf (circumambulation) area the Mas’aa (Sa’iy), on all of the Grand Mosque floors and while performing prayers.

While the humanitarian aspect concentrates on assisting every person in need of help and guiding persons who have lost their way in the Grand Mosque.

The Grand Mosque security men provide an atmosphere of tranquility, peace of mind and security for Umrah performers and worshipers so that they carry out their rites and acts of worship with ease.

The security men are assisted in carrying out all these functions smoothly through sophisticated technological monitoring and follow up system of cameras installed and distributed on all the floors of the Grand Mosque and at various locations in its piazzas.

The technological assist continues in organizing the entry of worshipers into and from the Grand Mosque and ensuring compliance with the mandatory physical distancing among worshipers and visitors; ensuring the pedestrian routes are free from any squatters or persons sitting there so as not to hinder the movement of worshipers and Umrah performers.

Apart from their fieldwork, whose aim is to maintain security and facilitate movement to and from the Grand Mosque, which is quite discernible, the security men working in the Haram never hesitate to carry out their humanitarian role in assisting old people to reach their destinations inside the Grand Mosque and to help and guide persons in need of guidance.