Many face uncertainty about performing hajj

Desk Report: Frequent flight cancellation and hajj agencies’ reluctant attitude in collecting the visas of the pilgrims are deepening the crisis around hajj management this year, pushing many pilgrims into uncertainty, reports Daily Sun.
Despite the frequent call and notices to hajj agencies, more than 60 hajj agencies have not issued demand orders (DO) in favour of more than 5,000 registered pilgrims.
At the same time, Biman Bangladesh Airlines continues to cancel hajj flights, taking the total cancellation tally to 16 due to a shortage of passengers.
Biman sources said the tickets of eight dedicated hajj flights remained unsold and this may cause uncertainty over their pilgrimage of around 1,000 hajj pilgrims.
Biman’s last hajj flight will fly from Dhaka on August 16 and as the Saudi government is not allowing any new slots, there will be no extra hajj flights this year.
Biman’s spokesperson Shakil Meraz said the pilgrimage of many devotees would fall into uncertainty if they fail to fly to Saudi Arabia in time.
As Biman will not be able to operate additional flights for hajj, a crisis might occur at the end, he added.
However, ruling out any possibility of crisis, Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (Haab) Secretary General Shahadat Hossain Taslim said every registered hajj aspirant will be able to go to Saudi Arabia to perform their hajj.
Echoing the same with the HAAB leader, Hajj office director Syful Islam claimed that everything was underway smoothly.
While asked about the flight cancellation due to the shortage of pilgrims, he said this can be managed.
According to the hajj camp, Around 1, 20,000 hajj pilgrims got visas while around 99,000 pilgrims have reached Saudi Arabia for Hajj, which is likely to be performed on August 21, subject to the sighting of the Moon. This year, a total of 1, 27,198 pilgrims will perform hajj from Bangladesh under the private and government management. Of them, 6,798 will perform Hajj under government management while 1, 20,000 under private management.
627 to miss hajj for personal reasons Hajj office sources said that around 627 registered hajj pilgrims will not be able to perform hajj this year due to visa complexity or personal reasons. Hajj office director Saiful Islam said that most of them are not being able to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj due to personal reasons and physical problems.