Haj pilgrims should pray for peace and prosperity: Naqvi

Pilgrims will travel from 10 embarkation points Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Cochin, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Srinagar, the minister said.Haj pilgrims from India should pray for peace and prosperity of the entire world.

Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday said Haj pilgrims from India should pray for peace and prosperity for the entire world.

Naqvi flagged off the first batch of Haj 2022 pilgrims of Maharashtra from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport here.

As many as 410 pilgrims, including 207 men and 203 women, are traveling in the first batch from the Mumbai embarkation point. About 8,000 pilgrims will travel from Mumbai in 19 flights.

Flights for Haj 2022 began on June 4. Pilgrims will travel from 10 embarkation points — Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Cochin, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Srinagar, the minister said.

Haj pilgrims from India should pray for the peace and prosperity of the entire world. They should pray that humanity remains safe from all kinds of crises, Naqvi said.

The pilgrimage is being carried out successfully with significant reforms, such as a 100 percent digital/online process and better facilities for pilgrims, he said.

Several online facilities, including a digital Health Card, "E-MAISHA" health facility and e-luggage pre-tagging, and information about accommodation and transportation in Makkah-Madinah, have been provided to pilgrims, he said.

As many as 79,237 Indian Muslims will go on the pilgrimage this year, and about 50 percent of them are women.

At least 56,601 are going through the Haj Committee of India and 22,636 through Haj Group Organisers (HGOs), it was stated.

The entire process of HGOs has been made transparent and online. More than 1,800 women are undertaking the pilgrimage without "mahram" (male companion) and are going to Haj without a lottery system.

The minister further said that pilgrims from Gujarat travel from Ahmedabad embarkation point and those belonging to Karnataka and Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh go from Bengaluru.

The Cochin embarkation point is for pilgrims from Kerala, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and Andaman & Nicobar, while people from Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, western districts of Uttar Pradesh will travel from Delhi, he said Guwahati embarkation point is for pilgrims from Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Nagaland and Hyderabad embarkation point for people from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the minister said.

Kolkata's embarkation point is for people from West Bengal, Odisha, Tripura, Jharkhand, and Bihar, while Lucknow is for pilgrims of Uttar Pradesh except for western parts, he said.

Mumbai embarkation point is for pilgrims of Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, and Srinagar for pilgrims of Jammu-Kashmir, Leh-Ladakh-Kargil, Naqvi added.