Saudi Gazette report
MADINAH/MAKKAH — At the completion of the lifetime spiritual journey of Haj pilgrimage, over 400,000 pilgrims arrived in Madinah by Tuesday morning to pray in the Prophet’s Mosque and offer him salutations.
The pilgrims who arrived in Madinah on Tuesday included 1,100 guests of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and 500 Palestinian pilgrims from Gaza.
King Abdullah thanked all those who were involved in making the Kingdom’s Haj operation a big success. In a reply cable to Minister of Interior and Chairman of the Supreme Haj Committee Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, the King attributed the success of the Haj to the great efforts exerted by the minister and members of the committee as well as the security personnel and staffers of government and private agencies and departments to render the best ever services for Haj pilgrims. “I appreciate all of these responsible people in fulfilling their obligations through implementing security, preventive, health, service, traffic, and organizational plans so as to enable the pilgrims to perform their rituals easily and comfortably,” he said. Earlier, Prince Muhammad, in his cable, briefed the King on the efforts made to make the Haj operation a great success.
Officials and staffers of the Private Haj Guides Organization in Madinah received the pilgrims who started arriving Monday evening. The organization has mobilized all its resources to serve more than 650,000 foreign pilgrims who are expected to arrive in the city before returning home.
Those pilgrims who have already been to the city before the Haj and those with no plans to visit Madinah started leaving the Kingdom.
The first flight carrying foreign pilgrims left Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport on 6.15 a.m. Tuesday. There were 132 pilgrims on board the plane bound for Bahrain. Saudi Arabian Airlines transported the first batch of 450 domestic pilgrims on board its flight to Dammam Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, the enormous Tent City of Mina wore a deserted look with the remaining pilgrims leaving for Makkah after performing the stoning ritual on the final day of the Haj. Most of the pilgrims had left Mina after performing stoning ritual for the third day on Monday. Those who stayed back in the Tent City completed the ritual after Dhuhr on Tuesday, the third day of Tashreeq, following the example of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). They hurled seven pebbles each first at Jamarat Al-Sughra, then at Jamarat Al-Wusta, and finally at Jamarat Al-Aqba, and then they left for Makkah. The pilgrims will have to perform Tawaf Al-Wida before their departure from Makkah.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims stayed back in Mina to complete the stoning ritual. Minister of Haj Bandar Hajjar alerted the Tawafa organizations that it is ideal for them to allow 50 percent of their pilgrims stay back in Mina on Monday so as to avoid overcrowding at the Grand Mosque. In line with this directive, most of the Haj missions had made extra arrangements for the pilgrims who prefer to stay back in Mina.
Muhammad Muajini, deputy chairman of the Tawafa Organization for the Arab Pilgrims, said that 40 percent of their pilgrims spent Monday night in Mina and left the valley after performing the fourth day’s stoning ritual Tuesday afternoon.
With all pilgrims vacating the Holy Sites, the Makkah Mayoralty officials face a daunting task of cleaning up after disposing more than half a million tons of garbage. The mayoralty has mobilized 23,050 personnel, including 14,000 street cleaners, to keep Makkah and the Holy Sites neat and tidy. Makkah Mayor Osama Al-Bar said earlier that the mayoralty would start disposing of garbage in the Holy Sites immediately after pilgrims leave Mina.
