More than 1.5 million Muslim pilgrims from across the world including more than 82,000 Bangladeshis have arrived in Makkah for performing the annual Hajj pilgrimage this year.
Besides hundreds of thousands of Saudis will join when the pilgrimage officially starts on Friday.
Nearly 3 million pilgrims may join this years Hajj pilgrimage.
Muslim pilgrims have been streaming into Saudi Arabias holy city of Makkah ahead of the start of the Hajj later this week, as the annual pilgrimage returns to its monumental scale. A breakdown of the arrival data revealed that 1,483,312 pilgrims arrived on air, while 59,273 pilgrims entered through land. Sea ports received a total of 4,710 pilgrims, state news agency SPA reported.
Makkah has now become overcrowded with pilgrims. More pilgrims will join the following day.
From Thursday night the pilgrims will leave Makkah for Mina. The Hajj pilgrimage will be held on Saturday in Arafat maidan.
Meanwhile, the Saudi government has introduced the "Makkah Route Initiative" one of the Ministry of Interiors initiatives within the "Pilgrim Experience Programme" in seven countries: Bangladesh, Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, and, for the first time, Turkey and Ivory Coast.
The initiative aims to provide high-quality transportation services for pilgrims from beneficiary countries to Saudi Arabia. The initiative streamlines the hajj process for participants by allowing them to complete key procedures from their home country.
This includes electronic visa issuance, biometric data collection, and airport departure checks after verifying health requirements.
Luggage is coded and sorted based on pre-arranged transportation and accommodation in Saudi Arabia.
Upon arrival, pilgrims are whisked away on dedicated buses to their residences in Makkah and Madinah, with their luggage delivered by service agencies.
A total of 82,772 Bangladeshi pilgrims have so far arrived in Saudi Arabia on 209 flights of Biman, Saudia and Flynas airlines in the last seven days since May 9.
Bangladesh Biman operated 22 dedicated hajj flights from Chattogram to Madinah and Jeddah during the current Hajj season.
These flights carried 10,500 pilgrims and the last flight left Chattogram on June 11. Last year, 11 flights were operated from Chattogram to Jeddah and Madinah, but this year the number has been increased to 22 and six of them will go to Makkah.
According to Bangladesh Hajj Mission in Makkah a total of 15 Bangladeshi pilgrims have so far died including one female. Of them eleven died in Makkah while 4 in Madinah.
All flights of Saudi airlines and Flynas have concluded on Wednesday.
The first return flight will begin from June 20 that will continue till July 22.
Meanwhile Bangladesh Hajj Mission held a meeting here with Secretary of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in the chair and discussed the present situations of the pilgrims.
The Minister for Religious Affairs and the Secretary of the Ministry are now in Makkah to monitor the pilgrimage
