9,000 BD pilgrims may fail to perform Hajj

FE Report

Nearly 9,000 Bangladeshi pilgrims are in despair over performing the Holy Hajj this year as the number of entries for the pilgrimage has already exceeded the quota fixed for the country.

For performing Hajj this year 110,000 pilgrims have deposited money to different government and non-government banks so far while the Saudi government has fixed quota for Bangladesh at 101,000 persons, officials said.

Among them, 3,000 pilgrims will perform Hajj through government management and the rest 98,000 will perform it through private management.

Officials said if the Bangladesh government fails to convince the Saudi authority to increase the number of the quota, 9,000 aspirants would not be able to perform Hajj.   

Director of the Hajj office under the Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA) Mizanur Rahman has confirmed the number of pilgrims.

He said that different bank authorities have sent the figure to the MoRA and next processes will start very soon after getting papers from the banks.

He said under the government management a total of 3,000 people and 98,758 people under private agency arrangement have deposited money for performing holy Hajj.

According to Hajj package, total cost for a pilgrim will stand at Tk 296,206.

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