MAKKAH: Saudi authorities have arrested and fined nearly 300 people caught trying to perform the hajj without permits, an official said Monday, as the kingdom prepares to receive 1 million people for the annual pilgrimage. Some 288 “citizens and residents were arrested for violating hajj regulations”, Lieutenant General Mohammed Al-Basami, head of hajj security, told a press conference broadcast on state-run media, adding they were each fined 10,000 Saudi riyals (around $2,600).

Officials have also imposed a security cordon around Makkah, Islam’s holiest city where the Grand Mosque is located, and barred nearly 100,000 people in more than 69,000 vehicles from entering, Basami said. One million people, including 850,000 from abroad, are allowed to participate in this year’s hajj - a key pillar of Islam that all able-bodied Muslims with the means are required to perform at least once - after two years of drastically curtailed numbers due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2019, about 2.5 million people took part in the rituals, which also include gathering at Mount Arafat and “stoning the devil” in Mina. The following year, when the pandemic took hold, foreigners were barred and worshippers were restricted to just 10,000 to stop the hajj from turning into a global super-spreader. That figure rose to 60,000 fully vaccinated Saudi citizens and residents in 2021. At least 650,000 pilgrims had arrived from overseas for the hajj as of Sunday, authorities said.

Banners welcoming the faithful, including the first international visitors since 2019, adorn squares and alleys, while armed security forces patrolled the ancient city, birthplace of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). “This is pure joy,” Sudanese pilgrim Abdel Qader Kheder told AFP in Makkah. “I almost can’t believe I am here. I am enjoying every moment.”

On Monday afternoon, pilgrims carrying umbrellas to shield themselves from the scorching sun flocked to souvenir and barbershops in Makkah, while others shared meals under palm trees on streets close to the Grand Mosque. Many new arrivals had already begun performing the first ritual, which requires walking seven times around the Kaaba, the large black cubic structure at the center of the Grand Mosque.

Made from granite and draped in a cloth featuring verses from the Holy Quran, the Kaaba stands nearly 15 m tall. It is the structure all Muslims turn towards to pray, no matter where they are in the world. “When I first saw the Kaaba I felt something and started crying,” Egyptian pilgrim Mohammed Lotfi told AFP. At least 650,000 overseas pilgrims have arrived so far in Saudi Arabia, the authorities said on Sunday.

Pilgrims this year - only those younger than 65 are allowed - will participate in the hajj under strict sanitary conditions. Masks are no longer compulsory in most enclosed spaces in Saudi Arabia but they will be mandatory at the Grand Mosque, the holiest site in Islam. Pilgrims from abroad will have to submit a negative PCR test result. The Grand Mosque will be “washed 10 times a day... by more than 4,000 male and female workers”, with more than 130,000 liters of disinfectant used each time, authorities said.

Since the start of the pandemic, Saudi Arabia has registered more than 795,000 coronavirus cases, 9,000 of them fatal, in a population of about 34 million. Aside from COVID, another challenge is the scorching sun in one of the world’s hottest and driest regions, which is becoming even more extreme through the effects of climate change. Although summer has only just begun, temperatures have already topped 50 degrees Celsius in parts of Saudi Arabia.

But Iraqi pilgrim Ahmed Abdul-Hassan Al-Fatlawi said the heat is the last thing he thinks of when in Makkah. “I am 60 years old, so it’s normal if I get physically tired because of the hot weather, but I am in a state of serenity, and that’s all that matters to me,” he said. - AFP