India’s Haj Committee rejects the applications for the current year

The Haj Committee of India took the decision of canceling all the applications received for the current year as Saudi Arabia is barring visitors from outside the country citing the present scenario of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The released circular by the committee stated, “The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has decided to allow citizens and residents inside the kingdom of Saudi Arabia only to attend Haj 1442 in limited numbers. International Haj has been cancelled. Hence it has been decided by the Haj Committee of India that all the applications for Haj-202l stands cancelled.”

Earlier, on June 12, the Haj and the Umrah Ministry declared that it will only permit a count of 60,000 completely vaccinated residents from the age group 18-65 to attend Haj 1442. They also mentioned the pilgrim should not have the presence of any chronic condition. While speaking at a press conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia health minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah revealed, “In light of what the entire world is witnessing with the Covid-19 pandemic and the emergence of new variants, the relevant authorities have continued to monitor the global health situation. Considering the large crowds that perform hajj, spending long periods of time in multiple and specific places requires the highest levels of health precautions.”

The Ministry further revealed the visitors need to be inoculated with the doses pf Covid-19 vaccine from the companies Pfizer Inc., Astrazeneca Plc., Moderna Inc., and Johnson & Johnson to attend Hajj pilgrimage. This is the second consecutive time Saudi Arabia took the call of barring people outside of Saudi Arabia for the Hajj pilgrimage. In 2020, the country had permitted only 10,000 Muslims to attend Hajj, whereas in 2019, nearly 2.5 million people attended it.

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