Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: The first flights for the 2024 Haj pilgrimage, from Assam and five other states of the Northeast, will start leaving from two embarking points: May 14 from Kolkata and May 16 from Guwahati airport. Sources in the Joint State Haj Committee, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, etc., said this.
Of the 3,800 pilgrims bound for Mecca, 400 will leave from Kolkata, and 3,400 will leave from Guwahati. The committee made all arrangements for taking the pilgrims, who are supposed to leave for Mecca from Kolkata, to the capital of West Bengal.
On May 15, the committee will hold a formal send-off for the pilgrims at Haji Musafirkhana, Guwahati. Apart from a gift packet from the state government, every pilgrim will get a gamosa, the cultural symbol of Assam. A government team of twenty members, including doctors and nurses, will accompany the pilgrims.
According to sources in the committee, it has made all arrangements for the departure of the Modina-bound flights from Guwahati and Kolkata.
The committee has already issued all instructions for the pilgrims to follow during the pilgrimage. It has also specifically mentioned what the pilgrims can carry with them and what they cannot or should not carry.
In 2023, as many as 6,002 pilgrims left for Haj pilgrimage from Assam and five other states of the Northeast. It was the all-time highest number of Haj pilgrims from this region. There was no Haj pilgrimage in 2020 and 2021 due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the lockdown that followed. Though Haj pilgrimage was opened in 2022, the number of pilgrims was reduced to only 3,544 due to age-related restrictions, among others. With the lifting of all restrictions in 2023, the number of pilgrims increased.
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