Hajj pilgrims under govt management to ‘go up by 50%’

The government has planned to increase the number of hajj pilgrims under government management to 50 percent from the next year, said State Minister for Religious Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah on Monday.

"The government has taken a plan to increase the number of hajj pilgrims under government management and ensure transparency in the process to send pilgrims under private management," he said while speaking at a press briefing at the Secretariat over hajj management.

The state minister claimed that the pilgrims performed their hajj without any chaos this time. "The government had taken steps so that the pilgrims don't face any harassment in getting visas, renting houses and sacrificing animals in Saudi Arabia," he said, adding that this has been possible because of different initiatives taken by the government.

Replying to a query about various allegations raised by hajj pilgrims, he said most of the allegations were not authentic.

He, however, said they will try to rectify if there were minor mistakes.

This year, a total of 127,152 pilgrims performed hajj from Bangladesh and of them, 6,923 went to Saudi Arabia under the government management.