Last-minute airlifts begin for Afghan Muslim pilgrims

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Posted 9:37AM on Tuesday, February 19, 2002

MECCA, Saudi Arabia - A last-minute international airlift was underway to bring thousands of stranded Afghan Muslims to Mecca for the start of the annual pilgrimage on Wednesday, officials said. Britain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have all pledged planes to help the Afghans join more than 1 million other Muslims from around the world already here for the hajj, the largest annual gathering of mankind anywhere. A lack of flights from Kabul, the Afghan capital, has blocked thousands from making the journey and has angered would-be pilgrims. Afghanistan's aviation minister, Abdul Rahman, was killed at the Kabul airport last week during a riot among pilgrims furious over flight delays to Saudi Arabia. Afghan leader Hamid Karzai has said senior officials, including the deputy intelligence chief, were behind the killing and he vowed to punish them. It was unclear if he was implying that the officials used the rioters as cover or that they incited the mob. The Quran, Islam's holy book, dictates that every Muslim who is able-bodied and can afford the journey is obliged at least once in a lifetime to perform the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca. Mecca is the birthplace of Islam's seventh century prophet Muhammad and home of Islam's holiest shrine. Four Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules transports were transporting a total of up to 270 pilgrims a day from Kabul to Jiddah on Saudi Arabia's western coast, said an RAF spokesman, speaking in the Gulf region. The spokesman said by the end of the operation on Wednesday night, the RAF would have transported about 1,000 pilgrims. He said the estimated flight time between Kabul and Jiddah was eight hours on a C-130 transport. Saudi Arabia said it would reopen its airspace to the pilgrims, even though the last official day for arrivals was Sunday, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. King Fahd has ordered Saudi planes to Kabul to carry pilgrims as well, the agency said. The U.A.E. dedicated four planes beginning Monday to carrying pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, the official Emirates News Agency said, and Pakistan International Airlines has also flown several pilgrimage flights from Kabul. As of Monday morning, 1,600 pilgrims had flown to Saudi Arabia from Afghanistan, according to Capt. Graham Dunlop, a spokesman for the British peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. Peacekeepers said earlier that 7,000 pilgrims were issued Saudi visas for the pilgrimage. Around 2 million people were participating in this year's hajj. The Jiddah-based Arab News said pilgrims already in the kingdom include 200,000 from Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, 130,000 from Pakistan, 116,000 from India, 103,000 Turks, 91,000 Iranians and 88,000 Egyptians. Wary of heightened tensions following the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan, authorities have deployed more than 80,000 volunteers, police and soldiers in Islam's holiest city, which is closed to non-Muslims. Security forces have set up seven major roadblocks around Mecca, Arab News reported. Only those with special permits are allowed in and thousands have been turned back. The number of American pilgrims had been expected to be lower as a result of the terror attacks, but the number increased 10 percent over last year to about 10,000 people, said Muhammad Abdul Aziz, an official responsible for American pilgrims. More than 500,000 pilgrims from inside Saudi Arabia are expected to join the overseas arrivals. The hajj begins with a visit to the Grand Mosque. Pilgrims then spend the night at the tent city of Mina, pray together the next morning at the gentle incline of Arafat, then wrap up rituals by sacrificing a sheep, goat, cow or camel, and end with the symbolic stoning of the devil. To manage the pilgrims' movement, there will be thousands of unarmed police along the route from Mecca to Mina, as well as 7,000 locations for distributing food, water, medical care and even telephone services, a security official said. Last year, about 35 Muslims died in a stampede while performing the stoning of the devil ritual. In 1994, 270 pilgrims were killed in a stampede during the same rituals, and in 1997 fires driven by high winds tore through the sprawling, overcrowded tent city at Mina, trapping and killing more than 340 pilgrims and injuring 1,500. Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights re