The New Nation - Internet Edition

Every year thousands of pilgrims from Bangladesh go to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj (pilgrimage) and every year they face a lot of afflictions including non-availability of flights and defraud of their money. The government is very much aware of all these but sadly does not take appropriate measures to redress the pilgrims' grievances.

Other Muslim countries of the world use to draw plan one year before to avert crisis and to make hajj journey as smooth as possible. The governments of those countries, even a non-Muslim country like India, take special care of the pilgrims and reportedly give subsidy to him who cannot find means to go to Saudi Arabia. On the contrary, in Bangladesh, a good number of economically solvent persons working in the Religious Ministry (and other ministries) use to go to Mecca at the State expenditure. This is really unfortunate if authenticate. This practice should be abandoned once for all.

Some of the private travel agencies are more dangerous. They love to play gambling with the intending pilgrims and embezzle their money. As law does not touch their evils, they have become desperate. Let me remind them in reference to verse No. 42/42 that Allah treats exploitation of man by another as the most serious offence. Nobody will be spared.

However, we hope that the government will be careful right from now for the next year's hajj schedules.

Rabbani

Dhaka