The 16th Batch of Haj pilgrims left Hyderabad for Jeddah from the Haj Camp at Nampally here on Saturday.
MLCs Moulana Hafiz Peer Shabbir Ahmed and Syed Amin ul Hasan Jafri, ACB DG AK Khan and SHC Special Officer Prof S A Shukoor flagged off the pilgrims and bid them farewell. All the dignitaries requested the pilgrims to pray for the welfare, peace and development of the nation, the country and the people of the State.
Moulana Hafiz Peer Shabbir Ahmed, while addressing the pilgrims, asked them to bear the difficulties of the journey and do not make any complaint about it to anybody, as they are the guests of Allah and Allah has summoned them from out of innumerable aspirants.
Prof S. A. Shukoor flagged off a batch of pilgrims for Mumbai. These pilgrims were selected under Waiting List. He said that as all the 18 flights were full to the capacity the Haj Committee of India arranged two more Chartered flights for the remaining Haj pilgrims from nine different states.
The Telangana State Haj Committee arranged three special buses for Mumbai. He said that along with the pilgrims, a Medical Team of Princess Esra Hospital, Haj Committee staff members, a few Home Guards also accompanied the pilgrims. These pilgrims will fly on 29th September, he said. Minorities Welfare Department Director Mohd Jalauddin Akber was also present on this occasion.
The 16th batch of 350 of Haj pilgrims, consisted of 322 pilgrims from Karnataka and 28 from Medak district of Telangana. Two last batches 300 each will fly to Jeddah tomorrow i.e. 28-09-2014. The first flight is scheduled to take off at 11:30 AM while the second flight will take off at 4:30 PM. (INN)