ISLAMABAD: Pakistan eyes Saudi Arabia’s flagship Makkah Route initiative expanded to more Pakistani cities this year, giving a greater number of pilgrims easier access to Hajj pilgrimage, said the Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri.
“We are in touch with the Saudi authorities to expand this initiative to four major airports,” the minister said at a press conference after a federal cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Referring to the program’s successful pilot project in Islamabad last year, he said that around 22,000 Pakistani Hajj pilgrims had benefitted from it.
He added that if Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi and Quetta airports were added to the initiative, some 80,000 pilgrims would further benefit from the pre-departure immigration facility.
The federal cabinet approved Hajj Policy 2020 on Tuesday, under which 179,210 Pakistanis will perform the Hajj this year, with a maximum cost of the pilgrimage capped at Rs490,000 per person.
“We have succeeded to bring down the Hajj cost with the help of Saudi officials,” Qadri said, citing increased airfares, higher health insurance, compulsory visa fees and currency devaluation in recent months as the reason for the earlier spike in pilgrimage expenses.
Makkah Route initiative was finalized during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s maiden visit to Pakistan in February 2019. Under the program, pilgrims are cleared for immigration and customs before departure.
Pakistan seeks 'Makkah Route' expanded to major cities — minister
https://arab.news/rnghm
Pakistan seeks 'Makkah Route' expanded to major cities — minister
- Says Islamabad is in touch with Saudi authorities to expand the initiative to four major airports
- Hajj Policy 2020 will cater to 179,210 Pakistanis this year
Four people, including two policemen, killed in twin blasts in northwest Pakistan
- Attack on police van in South Waziristan and motorbike-mounted IED in Lakki Marwat hits KP province
- Violence comes amid a surge in militancy and cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: At least four people, including two policemen, were killed and about 20 others wounded in two separate blasts in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday, officials said, the latest violence in a region grappling with militant violence.
One explosion targeted a police patrol van in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan district near the Afghan border, while another blast caused by explosives mounted on a motorbike struck a market area in Lakki Marwat district, according to police officials and preliminary reports.
The incidents come amid rising militant violence in Pakistan’s northwest, where authorities say armed groups operate from across the border in Afghanistan, straining relations between Islamabad and the Taliban administration in Kabul, with both sides engaged in a military conflict since last month.
“The control room received information in the evening about a bomb blast targeting a police van in Wana Bazaar,” a police official in the area, who did not want to be named, confirmed while speaking to Arab News over the phone.
He confirmed two deaths in the incident while saying more than 25 people had been injured.
The official said rescue teams responded promptly and shifted three seriously injured people to a nearby hospital in Wana.
In another incident during the day in Lakki Marwat, an improvised explosive device attached to a motorbike exploded near shops.
“Two people have been killed and about 10 have been injured in an IED blast in Lakki Marwat,” Raza Khan, Deputy Superintendent of Police in Bannu, told Arab News.
“The deceased are identified as Shoaib Ur Rehman and Furqan Ullah,” he added. “Shoaib, the owner of the shop, was the brother of the Lakki peace committee head.”
Peace committees in the region are informal, community-based groups that work with security forces to report militant activity and maintain order, making their members frequent targets of attacks.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attacks and expressed grief over the incidents.
“I strongly condemn the blast near a police patrolling vehicle in Wana Bazaar,” Naqvi said in a statement, confirming the killing of four people, including two police personnel.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police are on the front line in the war against terrorism,” he said, noting the force had made “unforgettable sacrifices” in the fight against militant groups.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan’s border regions in recent months, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban government of allowing militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate from Afghan territory — a charge Kabul denies — as cross-border tensions between the two neighbors have escalated.
