Five-day Haj rituals commence today in Saudi Arabia

The annual five-day Haj ritual commences today in Saudi Arabia with over one lakh 75 thousand pilgrims from India participating in the full-fledged pilgrimage after three years due to pandemic. The pilgrims begin their journey from holy city of Mecca to assemble in Mina. They will spend the night there and move towards plains of Arafat at dawn tomorrow for the day's main ritual of Haj, reciting prayers.

A quota of over one lakh 75 thousand pilgrims has been allotted to



India this year. Out of this, one lakh 40 thousand pilgrims have reached there through Haj Committee while nearly 35 thousand through private operators. This year, the highest number of over four thousand women pilgrims from India will undertake Haj pilgrimage without Mehram or male guardian.

Around 2.5 million pilgrims including record two lakh pilgrims from India performed Haj in 2019 before the pandemic outbreak.