Hyderabad, February 11: The issue of mandatory international passport for Haj pilgrims has once again come to the fore even as the prospective pilgrims were not ready to take it in their stride.
A decision which is likely to affect majority of the Haj pilgrims, will be taken on February 26 at a meeting of the chairmen of all state Haj Committees to be held in Delhi.
The community is disturbed at the turn of events and many fear they would not be able to make it on time. “I have not been able to go on Haj pilgrimage till now but plan to do it in the near future. While selection of pilgrims by lucky draw can mean a long delay for some people, it will be difficult for a few of my family members to go for the pilgrimage. They don’t even have an election card, leave alone an international passport,” says Syed Akhtar, a local.
Earlier the receipt of the application for a a Haj passport was enough to fill the applications. Provisional passports, Haj passports (which can only be used for pilgrimage to Mecca) and temporary passports were mostly issued to the pilgrims by the ministry of external affairs following which training camps were organised for the pilgrims.
“A meeting of the chairmen of all the state Haj Committees have been called to take a decision on making international passport mandatory,” chairman of the AP state Haj Committee, Syed Khaleeludin Ahmed told.
–Agencies