Srinagar, Dec 13 (IANS) Over 8,100 Muslims from Jammu and Kashmir will perform Haj pilgrimage this year, as the last batch of the pilgrims left for Saudi Arabia from here Thursday.
“Today (Thursday) 62 Jeddah bound pilgrims left Srinagar on the last Haj flight from here,” a senior officer told IANS.
“This year 8,192 pilgrims from the state would be performing the Haj,” the officer said.
Inclement weather and poor visibility due to fog at the Srinagar Airport caused repeated cancellations of Haj flights this year.
Alarmed by the erratic flight schedule for the Haj pilgrims, State Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had made a special request to the central government to keep the Indian Air Force planes available for airlifting the pilgrims in case the Air India flights faced continued landing problems.
“The state government has decided that from the next year onwards the Haj pilgrims from the Jammu region would fly to Jeddah from the Jammu Airport instead of the prevailing practice of air-lifting all Saudi bound pilgrims from the Srinagar airport,” an official said.