ISLAMABAD: Nearly 200,000 Pakistani pilgrims have reached Saudi Arabia to perform one of the most sacred religious rituals as annual Muslim pilgrimage begins in Makkah today.
The Hajj is among the five pillars of Islam that is mandatory for all adult Muslims who are financially and physically capable to undertake the journey at least once in their lives.
It is a combination of different rituals that last for five days in Makkah and three other places – Mina, Muzdalifah and Arafat — on the outskirts of that city.
This year, around 30,000 Pakistanis availed the pre-departure facility at the Islamabad International Airport under ‘Road to Makkah’ project.
“The pre-Hajj flight operation has concluded successfully with zero complaints from pilgrims,” Imran Siddique, spokesperson for the Ministry of Religious Affairs, told Arab News from Makkah.
Lauding the Saudi government for its cooperation, he said the Pakistani pilgrims were given “the best” accommodation, transportation and food facilities in both Makkah and Madinah.
“Our pilgrims who have benefited from the Road to Makkah project this year are particularly thankful to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for extending the facility to Pakistan,” Siddique said, hoping the project would also be extended to other airports of the country in the coming years.
Pakistan was included in the ‘Road to Makkah’ project during a February visit to Islamabad by the Saudi crown prince, after which it was announced that all pilgrims traveling from Islamabad airport would benefit from pre-departure immigration facility. Malaysia and Indonesia are already part of the project.
A team of Saudi officials set up the pilot immigration program at the Islamabad International Airport in July which provided immigration facility to about 30,000 Pakistani pilgrims flying from the country’s federal capital. The project helped these pilgrims save 10 to 12 hours of waiting time at Saudi airports.
Siddique said that Pakistani Hajj pilgrims were allotted 13 Makaatib [service offices] in train zone, 23 in old Mina and 24 in new Mina. About 54,000 Pakistani pilgrims would avail train facility, he added, while buses had been arranged for the rest of the pilgrims for their movement in the area where Hajj rituals are performed.
Pakistan’s post-Hajj flight operation will continue from August 17 to September 14 this year.
200,000 Pakistani pilgrims reach Saudi Arabia as annual Hajj ritual begins today
200,000 Pakistani pilgrims reach Saudi Arabia as annual Hajj ritual begins today
- Pakistan hopes “Road to Makkah” project will be extended to other cities after 30,000 pilgrims benefited at Islamabad airport this year
- The county’s post-Hajj flight operation will begin from August 17
UN says 270,000 Afghans have returned from Iran, Pakistan this year
- UNHCR says 110,000 Afghans returned from Iran while 160,000 returned from Pakistan since start of 2026
- Return numbers seem to have risen since Gulf war erupted on Feb. 28, says UNHCR official in Afghanistan
GENEVA: Some 270,000 Afghans have returned to their country from Pakistan and Iran so far this year, the UN said Tuesday, warning that the escalating Middle East war risked pushing the numbers higher.
UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, said that 110,000 Afghans had returned from Iran and another 160,000 had returned from Pakistan since the start of 2026.
And the numbers seem to have risen since the Middle East erupted on February 28, with the United States and Israel unleashing a barrage of strikes on Iran, and Tehran responding with drone and missile strikes on Israeli and US interests across the region.
Since then, there have been some 1,700 returns from Iran to Afghanistan each day, Arafat Jamal, UNHCR’s representative in Afghanistan, told reporters in Geneva.
Speaking from Islam Qala, on the Afghan-Iranian border, he said the situation there was “deceptively calm.”
“Returns are orderly but freighted with tension and apprehension,” he said, adding that with the hostilities elsewhere escalating, “I do fear there is more to come.”
“We are preparing for massive returns.”
He pointed out that Afghanistan was “facing the ramifications of what is happening with Iran,” while clashes have erupted along the Afghan border with Pakistan.
The new Middle East war, he warned, was “layering itself on top of an existing war on another frontier,” Jamal said.
UNHCR highlighted that the latest crises came after returns to Afghanistan had already been “exceptionally high” in recent years.
More than five million Afghans had returned from neighboring countries in the past two years, including 1.9 million returning from Iran last year alone.
Jamal warned that “many Afghan families are now facing cycles of displacement: first forced to flee Afghanistan, later displaced again inside Iran due to conflict, and now returning once more to Afghanistan.”
“And upon return in Afghanistan, the triply-displaced enter a spiral of precarity and uncertainty.”
Returns from Pakistan had meanwhile stabilized in recent weeks, as the main crossing point at Torkham remained closed due to the tensions there, Jamal said.
But he warned that “movements could increase sharply once the border reopens.”
UNHCR and the UN children’s agency UNICEF said Tuesday they were working to strengthen their capacity to operate at the borders and within Afghanistan.
But “given the scale of returns and the financial constraints facing humanitarian operations, additional support will be needed if arrivals increase,” UNHCR said, without specifying the amount needed.
