Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, July 4: Mecca, the holiest city in Islam, has been overrun with white-robed worshipers from all over the world as it gets ready to host the largest hajj pilgrimage since the coronavirus outbreak.
Armed security personnel patrolled the old city, the Prophet Muhammad’s birthplace, as welcome banners adorned squares and alleys for the faithful, including the first foreign visitors since 2019.
After two years of dramatically reduced attendance due to the epidemic, one million people, including 850,000 foreigners, are permitted at this year’s hajj, a central act of Islam that every able-bodied Muslim is obligated to perform at least once.
The officials reported on Sunday that at least 650,000 foreign pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia thus far.
Around 2.5 million people participated in the rites in 2019, which include circumambulating the Kaaba, the massive black cube inside the Grand Mosque in Mecca, congregating at Mount Arafat, and ‘stoning the demon’ in Mina.
To prevent the hajj from becoming a super-spreader on a worldwide scale, foreigners were banned the following year and the number of worshippers was limited to just 10,000, increasing to 60,000 fully immunised Saudi citizens and residents in 2021.
Under rigorous sanitary conditions, including ten times daily cleaning and disinfection of the Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest site, one million vaccinated pilgrims under the age of 65 will perform the hajj.
According to the official toll, the ceremonies have been the scene of countless calamities, including a 2015 stampede that may have killed up to 2,300 people and a 1979 onslaught by hundreds of shooters that claimed 153 lives.
