HAJJ TRAVEL CRISIS Minister flies to Makkah leaving pilgrims in uncertainty

The religious affairs minister, Motiur Rahman, his wife and entourage left Dhaka for Saudi Arabian city Jeddah on Saturday evening to
perform hajj this year, leaving hundreds of aspirant pilgrims in uncertainty on their travel to the Middle Eastern country. 
The minister on a wheelchair was seen leaving on a dedicated flight BG 9079 of Biman Bangladesh Airlines at about 7:00pm with other pilgrims, the airport officials said. 
A number of senior officers also left Dhaka with the minister, when dozens of aspirant pilgrims were staging demonstration in front of Ashkona Hajj camp, where hundreds of pilgrims gathered either for immigration or for collecting their travel documents.
The minister did not respond to the phone call at the airport but his wife said they were about to be boarded. 
‘He [the minister] should not leave Dhaka without confirming all pilgrims on board,’ said Golam Mowla Nakshabandi, advisor of Awami League central working committee. 
On Saturday, the hundreds of the aspirant pilgrims were seen waiting for their flights while hundred others took their Ehram, the dress meant for pilgrims, in the morning and later came to know their flight delayed for nine hours from the schedule time of 4:45pm.
Shakhawat Hossain, a retired additional secretary who put on his Ehram and was not sure until evening when his flight BG 1511 would finally depart, said ‘there is no limit of mismanagement [of hajj].’ 
Asked why the flight carrying minister left Dhaka keeping over 300 pilgrims awaiting for another flight which was supposed to leave by 4:40pm, the Biman’s managing director AM Mosaddique Ahmed said it happened due to the schedule. 
Until Saturday, half of 2,258 people who paid money to 12 private Hajj agencies— Shanjid Travels International, Al Balad Overseas, Club Travel Services, Global Tour and Travel Agency, Gulshan-A-Muhammadia Travels, Mco Travels and Tours, Mesfalah Travels, Modina Air International Aviation, Nibir Hajj Omrah and Tourism, Saeed Air International, Eco Aviation and Tourism and Uniroute Overseas and Tour Limited—were not sure about their travel.
Fifty of the 90 pilgrims, who deposited their Hajj fee to Modina Air International Aviation, were seen staging demonstration, shouting slogans and demanding immediate arrest of its owner Saiful Islam.
In the procession, Sadar Uddin, 65, of Madhupur of Tangail, said he had paid Tk 2.82 lakh so far and the executives of Modina Air International Aviation asked him to turn up at the Hajj camp. 
‘Once we arrive here, they stopped communicating us,’ said the affected pilgrim.
Like him, retired government teacher Nurul Amin of Barisal was seen waiting at the office of Hajj director. The retired official said he, along with his wife, planned to perform pilgrimage this year and deposit money to the account of Al Balad Overseas. 
They asked him that the couple would be flown by Saturday but they stopped communicating them. 
‘I am ready now to pay additional amount of money but I have to go,’ he was telling to a hajj official at the camp. 
Sixty-three-year-old Azharul Islam of Biral in Dinajpur said they reached Hajj camp on August 21 as their Hajj operators promised them that their flight would leave Dhaka on August 23.
He, together with 12 others, was seen languishing on the lobby of the Hajj camp with many others. 
They initially paid Tk 2.90 lakh and later deposited Tk 30 more to confirm their flight. 
‘I never meet such horrible situation in my life,’ said Azharul from flood-affected Biral area. 
The Hajj director Saiful Islam was seen negotiating with the officials of the banks where the pilgrims submitted their payments, but he was informed that the money was not transferred to the air ticket purchases.
Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh secretary general Shahadat Hossain Taslim admitted that the middlemen, who took money from the pilgrims but they neither submitted that to the main Hajj agency nor gave that back to the aspirant pilgrims, causing this uncertainty.
‘I have personally negotiated large scale of allegation involving the pilgrimage of 1,000 people,’ Taslim added.
Despite all odds, the Biman Bangladesh Airlines officials were happy as they got permission from Saudi Arabia to operate eight more flights until August 28. 
This year a total of 1,26,247 pilgrims will perform Hajj. Over 1,16,386 pilgrims were flown jointly by national flag carriers of Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.
Bangladesh national flag carrier was forced to cancel 24 Hajj flights through which around 14,500 pilgrims could have been sent to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian airline, Saudia, has also cancelled four Hajj flights.
Shakil Meraj, Biman general manager (public relations), said, ‘We will carry all the passengers who got the tickets.’ 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net