Pilgrims start coming home

A total of 305 Bangladeshi pilgrims returned home yesterday after performing Hajj.

A Saudi Airlines flight carrying the pilgrims landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 4:50pm, Mobassher Hossain, an assistant police super of Airport Armed Police Battalion told The Daily Star.

The first flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines was scheduled to arrive in Dhaka at 9:30am today, said Khan Mosharraf Hossain, general manager (public relations) of Biman.

The Saudi authorities had fixed a quota of 1, 01,750 Bangladeshi pilgrims this year. Of them, 10,000 performed hajj under government arrangement and the rest under private management, said officials at the religious affairs ministry.

Meantime, the Saudi authorities deployed a large number of security members as pilgrims performed the final rituals of a Hajj marred by a twin tragedy -- the death of over 100 in a crane collapse and of at least 769 in a stampede.

Pilgrims streamed out of Mina after performing the ritual of “stoning of the devil” for one last time on Saturday.