MAKKAH: Saudi specialists have captured and fined almost 300 individuals found attempting to perform Haj without licenses, an authority said on Monday, as the realm plans to get 1,000,000 individuals for the yearly journey.
Nearly 288 “residents and inhabitants were captured for disregarding Haj guidelines,” Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Basami, head of Haj security, told a public interview broadcast on state-run media, adding that they were each fined 10,000 Saudi riyals (around $2,600).
Authorities have likewise forced a security cordon around Makkah, Islam’s holiest city where the Grand Mosque is found, and banned almost 100,000 individuals in excess of 69,000 vehicles from entering, Basami said.
1,000,000 individuals, including 850,000 from abroad, are permitted to take part in the current year’s Haj following two years of radically abridged numbers due to the Covid pandemic. That is beneath the 2.5m individuals who performed Haj in 2019, preceding the pandemic hit, yet altogether higher than the 60,000 individuals, every one of them completely immunized Saudi residents, who partook last year.
Something like 650,000 pioneers had shown up from abroad for Haj as of Sunday, specialists said. The journey authoritatively begins on Wednesday, however on Monday explorers were at that point performing ceremonies.
