Wednesday, Nov 04, 2009

Gulf News

Riyadh With tens of thousands of pilgrims arriving in Saudi Arabia from all over the world, authorities have made elaborate preparations to ensure a safe and secure Haj.

Extraordinary security arrangements and precautionary measures have been put in place for the annual pilgrimage, which begins on November 25.

This comes in the wake of the recent war of words between Riyadh and Tehran, and the growing swine flu scare.

The weekly meeting of the Saudi Council of Ministers, held on Monday, warned that the kingdom will not allow anyone to undermine the security and safety of pilgrims during the Haj season.

"The kingdom's policy does not allow any party to tamper with the smooth operation of Haj events and undermine the security of pilgrims," the Cabinet said, while urging pilgrims to keep away from all activities that could affect Haj security.

The Cabinet statement came following recent comments made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an apparent move to politicise Haj.

Top Saudi religious figures — Grand Mufti Shaikh Abdul Aziz Alu Al Shaikh and Shura Council President Abdullah Alu Al Shaikh — and Haj Minister Fouad Al Farsi have denounced any attempt to undermine security during the annual pilgrimage.

More than 63,000 security personnel will be deployed to ensure the security and safety of pilgrims during the world's largest annual gathering.

Security apparatus

Meanwhile, the Civil Defence Directorate announced yesterday its Haj plan for the upcoming pilgrimage season.

Speaking to Gulf News, Brigadier General Jameel Arbaeen, director of Civil Defence in Makkah, said: "We have completed all the preparations to tackle any emergency situations during Haj.

"We have already located danger-prone zones at the holy sites. All highly advanced techniques are in place to get fast information and tackle the situation without any delay."

Brig Gen Jameel also disclosed that his department readied about 70 rescue teams, 85 medical evacuation teams, 250 emergency teams and eight fast intervention teams in addition to 300 motorcycle-borne teams to cover the entire area of the holy sites and the Haram central area in Makkah.

Moreover, there will be 1,000 emergency staff members deployed at all the 13 fixed points and 20 additional points around the holy city.

hini scare

vaccination mandatory

The Saudi Ministry of HealthMinistry of Health has announced that it is mandatory for all the domestic pilgrims to vaccinate against swine flu. "The vaccines will also be made available — but are not mandatory — for health workers, hundreds of thousands of government and private sector workers dealing with the Haj, as well as residents of Makkah and Madinah," said Ziad Memish, the assistant deputy health minister for preventive medicine. "Anyone working during the Haj season was being strongly urged to get vaccinated," he said.

The kingdom has received the first batch of vaccines. Authorities are to begin vaccinating domestic pilgrims and Haj workers from next week.

Swine flu deaths have reached 62 in the kingdom, most of them involving people with other health problems. "The low level of cases during the peak Umrah season in August and September — only 26 proven swine flu infections among millions of pilgrims — gave us confidence that the Haj will not experience a major outbreak of swine flu pandemic," Memish said.

By Abdul Rahman, Shaheen Correspondent

© Gulf News 2009. All rights reserved.

 

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