By Muhammed Faisel Mustapha
According to the Pilgrims, this year’s hajj has recorded a significant change which eased major burden on pilgrims as compared to last year’s hajj pilgrimage.
[ads1]The Pilgrims made this known during the arrival of the first and second batch of 333 and 334 out of 2,804 Pilgrims who were airlifted from Accra to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The third flight is expected to land Accra today at about 23:20 GMT with a flight capacity of 437 passengers.
According to them the provision of food for all Pilgrims made them save more money during the operations adding that the collaboration between them and hajj board executive members was very cordial which made things smooth for them.
This, according to them was part of promise made to them before they embarked on the religious journey to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia adding that many things were added to this year’s hajj as compared to previous hajj operations.
In a brief statement by the Deputy Minister for Interior on behalf of government, reiterated that this year’s hajj operations under the auspices of Sheikh I.C Quaye has been successful.
The Minister revealed that four Pilgrims were recorded dead adding that details of the challenges will be addressed when the Hajj Board’s Chairman returns from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
On her part, the Deputy Communications Director of the Ghana Hajj Board, Hajiya Maryam Sissy, stated that 5,700 Pilgrims were airlifted from Accra and Tamale respectively to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with 2,804 and 2,622 are expected to return via Accra and Tamale.
She noted that the figure will not be a total of 5,700 Pilgrims as expected due to Pilgrims who bought their own tickets to return earlier.
She added that due to the intervention by the able chairman, the approved date of September 14 for the arrival of Ghanaian Pilgrims was rescheduled for an earlier take off with the last batch to arrive on September 19th this year.
Responding to the death of the four Pilgrims, Hajiya Sissy revealed that the death include a female and three males, this she said was a natural death which is beyond the control of the Board as her outfit had many medical officers who screened and checked the health status of all the Pilgrims before embarking on the pilgrimage.