Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud congratulated Saudi Crown Prince and Supreme Hajj Committee, Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for the success of the season of Hajj 2016, reported The Saudi News Agency.
Despite this year’s challenges and the accusations of Iran’s officials against Saudi Arabia, around 1,8 million pilgrims performed Hajj, recording the least number of pilgrims in the last 10 years.
According to Asharq Al Awsat, King Salman lauded all the efforts put by the Saudi Crown Prince, being the Chairman of the Supreme Hajj Committee, all the officials, government services’ employees and those working in civil and military sectors, confirming that these efforts are appreciated.
Meanwhile, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef confirmed that his country succeeded in managing and organizing pilgrimage during all its stages and it was able to prove rivals were wrong in all their accusations, describing the Hajj mission as hard.
“We were put in challenging regional circumstances, and we were threatened by many. Thanks God you all worked calmly and professionally”, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef said at a press conference, adding: “The result is an honor for all of us”.
Al Arabiya reported that the security authorities arrested 54 terror suspects during Hajj 2016.
The terror suspects included 30 Saudis, 13 Bahrainis, and the rest from seven different nationalities. One of them was a citizen of Brunei.
In the other side, nearly 108 pilgrims died during this year’s Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria said that 18 Nigerians died including A mentally ill woman.
Meanwhile, 35 Egyptian pilgrims and 54 Pakistani pilgrims including 20 female and 34 male pilgrims died during Hajj 2016, because of illnesses such as: stress, general fatigue, sores and cracks in their feet, colds, diabetes, and high or low blood pressure.
The General Authority for Statistics (GaStat) in Saudi Arabia listed that the Egyptian domestic pilgrims outnumbered other nationalities residing in Saudi Arabia. They were followed by Pakistanis and Indians.
This year, 1,325,372 foreign and 537,537 domestic pilgrims performed Hajj, making a total of 1,862,909 pilgrims
