Sun, November 13 2011
Mecca (ANTARA News) - The number of Indonesians who died in the Holy Land while making the hajj pilgrimage this year had by 4.18 pm local time or 8.18 pm West Indonesia Standard Time (WIB) on Saturday reached 212, official data showed.
Based on the computerized data at the Integrated Hajj Services office of the Religious Affairs Ministry in Saudi Arabia, some 44 of the 212 dead pilgrims came from the Surabaya embarkation point, 38 from Solo, 29 from Bekasi, 23 from Jakarta and 17 from Makassar.
The 212 deceased persons consisted of 146 men and 67 women. Some 156 died in Mecca, 26 in Medina, four during their journey to Saudi Arabia and one in Jeddah.
Director General for Hajj and Umorh (minor hajj) Affairs Slamet Riyanto said many of the dead pilgrims were advanced in age, namely over 60 years old.
"Many of the over 60-year-old people died during the hajj because of old age and overfatigue," he said.
For this year hajj pilgrimage, the Saudi government had met Indonesia`s request to be allowed to send 10,000 more would-be hajj pilgrims and this brought the total number of Indonesians making the journay in 2011 to 221,000. Around 80 percent of Indonesia`s 230 million population are Muslims.
In the meantime, Secretary General of the Ministry of Religious Affairs Bahrul Hayat said recently the government had succeeded in providing accommodations for pilgrims that were located closer to the Haram Mosque every year.
He said in 2009, about 27 percent of pilgrims stayed less than two kilometers from the Haram Mosque, in 2010 it was 63 percent and in 2011 the figure had reached 93 percent. "This is better than the target of 83 percent," he said.
(kindly borrowed from Antara News)
zo 13 nov 2011 - 4:55