PARIS, Feb 20 (News Agencies) - Some 80 Muslims heading for the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca demonstrated Tuesday outside the offices of a tour operator that organized their trip but failed to come up with the airline seats to Saudi Arabia.
The protestors, from the Paris region and the provinces, were among 500 would-be pilgrims left stranded a week ago at Paris' Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport because the airline company sub-contracted to fly them to Saudi Arabia failed to obtain the necessary landing permits from Saudi officials.
Two other groups of pilgrims have faced similar problems in the last week and had to wait several days before obtaining flights to Jeddah.
The attorney representing Riyadh Voyages, the tour operator, on Monday said the latest group would be flown to Saudi Arabia within 48 hours but the pilgrims said they had been given no further details.
The Hajj, expected to bring together some two million pilgrims from across the world to Mecca in March, is one of the five pillars of Islam, which requires all Muslims who have the means to undertake it once in their lives.
