Golf carts help elderly pilgrims in Madinah

A specialized team prepares and maintains the carts and wheelchairs daily. (SPA)
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Updated 18 July 2022
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Golf carts help elderly pilgrims in Madinah

  • About 5,000 people per day are benefitting from the service, and 400 wheelchairs have been made available to visitors to the Prophet’s Mosque

MADINAH: The General Presidency for the Affairs of the Prophet’s Mosque has set up a transportation service using golf carts to help the elderly reach the mosque’s facilities more easily.

Each golf cart can accommodate six persons, and 40 employees are available to effectuate the transfers, which currently average 800 per day.

About 5,000 people per day are benefitting from the service, and 400 wheelchairs have been made available to visitors to the Prophet’s Mosque. More than 32,000 people have used the golf cart service so far in the post-Hajj season, while over 138,000 people used the service during the pre-Hajj season.

A specialized team prepares and maintains the carts and wheelchairs daily, also supplying the women’s section with wheelchairs in two locations in the new western courtyards of the Prophet’s Mosque.

Statistics from the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah revealed that almost 74,000 pilgrims of various nationalities arrived in Madinah Saturday evening after performing the Hajj rituals in Makkah.

According to the statistics, almost 23,000 pilgrims left Madinah after Hajj to their respective countries.


Saudi, Pakistan defense chiefs discuss ‘measures needed to halt’ Iranian attacks on Kingdom

Updated 07 March 2026
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Saudi, Pakistan defense chiefs discuss ‘measures needed to halt’ Iranian attacks on Kingdom

RIYADH: Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Pakistan’s  Chief of Defense Forces Asim Munir discussed Iran’s attacks on the Kingdom, amid the escalating military conflict in the Middle East. 

“We discussed Iranian attacks on the Kingdom and the measures needed to halt them within the framework of our Joint Strategic Defense Agreement,” Prince Khalid wrote on social media early on Saturday.

“We stressed that such actions undermine regional security and stability and expressed hope that the Iranian side will exercise wisdom and avoid miscalculation.”

The US and Israel began a large-scale military campaign against Iran on Feb. 28. Iran has since attacked a number of sites across the Gulf.

Tehran has also attacked US and Israeli military assets as the war as escalated, impacting lives in the peaceful Arabian Gulf peninsula and risked shaking the global economy as Iran continued restricting energy shipping along the Strait of Hormuz.

The Saudi Defense Ministry said a number of drones had been shot down that were targeting the Shayba oil field in the Empty Quarter on Saturday.

A drone attacked the US embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday causing a minor fire, but no one was hurt in the incident.

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a “Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement”  in September, pledging that aggression against one country would be treated as an attack on both.

Separately, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif, the Saudi interior minister, received a call from his Pakistani counterpart Raza Naqvi, who condemned the blatant attacks targeting the Kingdom and affirmed his country’s solidarity in confronting any threats to the Kingdom’s security and stability, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday.