Srinagar, June 17: Muhammad Ayoub a Srinagar resident is dejected that for a second year in a row his dream of undertaking Hajj pilgrimage could not materialise due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Ayoub is not the only person in Jammu and Kashmir who despite Covid-19 pandemic across the world had submitted online applications for Hajj 2021.
A total of 8200 aspirants of J&K had submitted the Hajj applications this year.
Saudi Arabia issued a statement informing that due to the coronavirus pandemic it had decided to allow only citizens and residents of Saudi Arabia to attend Hajj this year in limited numbers while Hajj for citizens of other nationalities had been cancelled.
This has lead to disappointment among the aspirants from Kashmir division.
“We have received 8200 online applications for Hajj 2021 from aspirants. All of them stand canceled as the Saudi government has restricted international pilgrims for Hajj due to Covid,” Chief Executive Officer, J&K Hajj Committee Dr Abdul Salam Mir said.
He said that this year nobody had submitted any installment for the pilgrimage and that only a nominal application fee was paid by them.
The Hajj Committee of India this year had made changes in the eligibility criteria and the upper age limit for applying for Hajj was fixed at 60 years, which was not the case earlier.
The Hajj Committee has already announced that all applications for the pilgrimage this year stand cancelled as Saudi Arabia has said that only a limited number of people residing in the country would be allowed to go for Hajj due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Hence it has been decided by the Hajj Committee of India that all the applications for Hajj 2021 stands cancelled,” the circular signed by Hajj Committee of India’s Chief Executive Officer Maqsood Ahmed Khan said.
Last year also the government had decided that Muslims from India would not travel to Saudi Arabia for Hajj 2020 after Saudi Arabia conveyed that pilgrims should not be sent in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, the cancellation of Hajj and Umrah services for the second year in a row has resulted in losses to Hajj and Umrah Tour operators.
“The cancellation of Hajj is yet another blow to our sector which is facing huge losses since last year when the Umrah services were suspended. Since March 2019, there is no business for us,” a tour operator said. “The Saudi government has banned international pilgrims from undertaking Hajj and Umrah which is badly affecting us.”
Hajj and Umrah companies were providing employment to more than 4000 people who have become jobless for the last two years.