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A
giant project to develop the Jamrat bridge where pilgrims
amass to stone pillars symbolizing Satan is near completion.
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By
Fawaz Mohammad, IOL Correspondent
RIYADH,
January 10 (IslamOnline.net) – With some two million Muslims
expected to perform hajj this year, Saudi government plans are in full
swing to head off potential tragic stampedes and make the holy rituals
easier for the faithful.
A
giant project to develop the Jamrat bridge where pilgrims amass
to stone pillars symbolizing Satan is near completion.
After
a stampede tragedy last hajj which killed 251 pilgrims, Saudi King
Fahd bin Abdel Aziz ordered turning the bridge to four-storey.
The
government, subsequently, planned a 533-million-dollar redevelopment
of the 272-meter wide area.
Hajj
Minister Iyad Bin Amin Madani said the new changes will further see
new emergency exits at the place where the pilgrims throw Jamrat
Al-Aqabah.
The
plans further include changing the circular shape of the Jamrat
fence into oval and the horizontal pillars into vertical.
Pilgrims
hurl
seven pebbles from behind a fence or from the overhead bridge
every day for three days at each of the three 18-metre (58-foot) high
concrete pillars.
Surveillance
Cameras
Saudi
authorities have further installed four surveillance cameras around
the Jamrat bridge to nib potential stampedes in the bud.
Some
700 TV sets have also been set up in camps in Mina to broadcast the
rituals live for the white-robbed pilgrims in different languages.
Abedl
Fattah Bin Abdel Shakour, the director of the Hajj Ministry’s
department in Makkah, said multilingual leaflets and bulletins will be
distributed among the pilgrims to raise their awareness of the good
manners during the spiritual journey.
He
said pilgrims will be allowed gradually to throw the pebbles with
60,000 expected to perform the ritual at the first hour.
There
have been many deadly stampedes in the past. In 2003, 14 pilgrims,
including six women, were killed during the first day of the stoning
ritual, 35 in 2001 and 118 in 1998.
The
worst toll was in July 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims were trampled or
asphyxiated to death in a stampede in a tunnel in Mina.
An
Egyptian scholar put forward last year a couple of creative
ideas to alleviate the too much crowding in hajj season,
suggesting making some of the rituals automated.
Every
able-bodied adult Muslim who can physically and financially afford the
trip must perform hajj, one
of the “five pillars” of Islam , once in their lifetime.
Official
figures put the total number of pilgrims performing last year's hajj
at 1,892,710, with 1,419,706 from abroad and 473,004 Saudis and other
Muslim residents of the kingdom.
Anti-Smoking
Campaign
The
Saudi Health Ministry, meanwhile, will capitalize on the gathering of
a sea of Muslims during hajj and step up its anti-smoking campaign for
the second straight year.
Entitled
“Let’s Make Makkah and Madinah Free from Tobacco,” the effort is
focused on keeping the pilgrims posted on the serious health and
economic consequences of smoking.
The
campaign organizes direct meetings with the pilgrims in hospitals and
health centers in addition to distributing anti-smoking fliers.
The
event coincided with a landmark decision taken by municipality of
Madinah on January 1, which banned the selling of tobacco and its
ingredients around the Prophet’s Mosque and at the shops overlooking
it.
The
municipality also decided to stop issuing licenses for
cigarette-selling shops and gave the existing ones a deadline until
the expiry of their current permits to either change the activity or
face closure.
The
government banned last year smoking in public places, schools,
universities, health and sports institutions as well as public
transport. Violators are fined 200 Saudi Rials (US$53) on the spot.
Saudi
Arabia is the world’s fourth largest importer of cigarettes with the
annual consumption running at 15 billion cigarettes and the number of
smokers put at six million.
Official
estimates indicate that some 23,000 people die annually of
smoking-related diseases.
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