Ganderbal, May 8: The Hajj Committee of Ladakh organised an orientation/training programme for the provisionally selected Hajj pilgrims for this year from Leh district at Sindhu Sanskriti Kendra Leh on Monday.
Member of Parliament, Ladakh, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal was chief guest on the occasion. It was informed that a total of 475 applications were filed from UT of Ladakh for Hajj pilgrimage 2023. In a historic achievement, all the 475 applications were approved by the Ministry of Minority Affairs which is the nodal ministry to conduct HJaj pilgrimage in India.
Addressing the gathering, MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal congratulated the HajJ pilgrims for receiving the opportunity to achieve one of the five tenets of Islam. He expressed his gratitude to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the formulation of UT Ladakh Hajj Committee as per the wishes and aspirations of the Muslim brethren of Ladakh. He lauded the efforts of the Hajj Committee Ladakh headed by President Mohammad Ali Majaz for facilitating the entire Hajj pilgrimage process along with organising special passport seva camp in Kargil to ease the passport services and also the orientation programme.
He added that the central government’s approval to all the 475 Hajj applicants from Ladakh is a remarkable achievement for the newly formed Hajj Committee of UT Ladakh and assured that the Hajj Committee would strive harder for serving the Muslim communities of the region.
Executive Councillor, Minority Affairs, Ghulam Mehdi expressed best wishes to the Haj pilgrims and commended the hard work and dedication of the Hajj Committee UT Ladakh in streamlining and facilitating the Hajj pilgrimage processes. He appreciated the Committee’s decision to provide training to the Hajj pilgrims from Nubra in the sub-division itself.
President, Hajj Committee, UT Ladakh, Mohammad Ali Majaz and its members Councillor Mirza Hussain and Nazir Ahmed also shared their thoughts during the event which focused on the work of the Hajj Committee, the challenges it faced and the assurance to resolve the issues in the future and to take forward the experiences learned in this year’s Hajj Pilgrimage process. The resource persons for the orientation/training programme were Iftikhar Ahmed and Mohammad Ali. They briefed the Hajj pilgrims on a broad range of topics, including vaccination prior to embankment, Covid protocol, required medical documents, accommodation, touring, transportation and communication facilities, foreign currency exchange along with disaster management measures. The training programme also focused in detail on the various religious rituals to be observed while undertaking the pilgrimage at different and important religious sites.
Ulemas and religious heads of different sects, presidents of religious organisations and presidents (women wing) of religious organisations along with the provisionally selected Hajj pilgrims from different parts of Leh were present during the orientation programme.
