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Pilgrims still stranded in Mecca
2007-12-27 09:57:46
By Correspondent Nasser Kigwangallah
Some 1,500 Tanzanian Muslims who went to Saudi Arabia for this year`s pilgrimage are still stranded in Mecca, The Guardian has reliably learnt.
One of the pilgrims, Ali Miya, said in a telephone interview from Mecca yesterday that they were still in the holy city, waiting for the Saudi Arabian authorities to grant them with permits to go to Medina before returning home later this week.
He said the agencies in charge of their travel plans were yet to finalise arrangements with the Saudi authorities “so we are still in the dark as to when exactly we will be flying back home”.
“As I talk to you, all the pilgrims are still in Mecca. Any reports that we have been to Medina performing some rituals are totally false,” he added.
Miya said all those stranded in Dar es Salaam for two weeks while on their way to Mecca were finally flown straight to Medina and were then rushed to Mecca, where the pilgrimage was supposed to start.
Miya, who was one of those affected, said they did not get ample time to visit holy places such as the Grand Mosque of the Holy Prophet.
“Because we were late and did not get time to perform other rituals in Medina, we now want to go there for the purpose. But the Saudi authorities have denied us permission to return there, citing security problems,” he said.
“All the pilgrims are stranded here in Mecca, with completely nothing to do, with some sick and having run out of food and short of money,” he added.
He said they were “to all intents and purposes, back to square one” and had no information at all about plans for their flight back home.
“Arrangements for the plane that flew us here were hurriedly made by the Tanzanian government in collaboration with the Saudi authorities,” Miya said, requesting that the government do whatever it could “to help us return home before things get out of hand”.
Interviewed in Dar es Salaam earlier yesterday, Sheikh Abdul Shakoor explained that all the 164 people who travelled to Mecca for the pilgrimage through their agency were “in safe and sound condition” and would be returning home on Monday next week.
“All the 164 pilgrims who went through Bakwata will be returning to the country on December 31, 2007 aboard a Yemen Airways flight. They are currently in Medina finalising important rituals there, including touring the Grand Mosque of the Holy Prophet (SAW),” he said.
Sheikh Abdul Shakoor, Secretary to the Mufti of the Tanzania Muslim Council (Bakwata), said rumours that Tanzanian pilgrims were stranded in Saudi Arabia bore no grain of truth.
“I can assure you that the information I am giving you is the correct one,” he pointed out.
Infrastructure Development ministry deputy permanent secretary Omar Chambo, who chairs a task force formed by the government to coordinate the pilgrims’ travel after arrangements by Air Tanzania failed, said he had reliable information all Tanzanian pilgrims would be returning home “as scheduled”.
He said they were making arrangements to see to it that all began flying back from this Friday, adding that all the pilgrims should be back by Tuesday next week.
Noting that the government was “putting final touches to that end, he explained: “We want to avoid a recurrence of the kind of pre-departure delay and chaos which occurred in Dar es Salaam some two weeks ago.”
Unconfirmed reports on Monday said the hundreds of people stranded for over a week in Dar es Salaam before leaving for pilgrimage in Mecca were now stranded in Saudi Arabia after successfully performing the Hajj.
However, the government quickly dismissed the reports as “mere speculation” and said the first batch of pilgrims was expected to depart from Saudi Arabia in the course of this week.
While on their way to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage, the pilgrims were stranded in Dar es Salaam for between a week and 12 days after the failure of arrangements by the national carrier (Air Tanzania) to fly them.
Most had to camp at the Julius Nyerere International Airport until the government intervened and hired a plane from South Africa for the purpose.
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