Amid poor response in hajj registration, the Ministry of Religious Affairs today extended the deadline for registration till February 1.

The ministry extended the deadline following a special request by the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) and intended hajis, the religious ministry said in a release.

Within this period, the initial registration can be done by depositing Tk 2.05 lakh in the bank or the final registration can be done by paying the full amount of the hajj package.

After the initial registration, the remaining price of the hajj package must be deposited in the same bank by February 29 to complete the final registration.

Otherwise, hajj cannot be performed and money paid at the time of initial registration will not be refunded.

Earlier, the last date of registration for hajj ended on January 18 keeping around 79,000 hajj quotas remain unfulfilled.

The hajj registration started on November 15 and continued till December 10. The ministry later extended the deadline until December 31.

Despite a very poor response, the ministry later extended the time until January 18.

According to the ministry, only 47,772 hajj aspirants have completed their hajj registration against the total quota of 1.27 lakh meaning that around 79,000 hajj quotas still remain unfulfilled.

According to the agreement between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, a total of 1.27 lakh Bangladeshis got the opportunity to perform hajj this year.

Leaders of HAAB said despite huge interest, people are not completing hajj registration due to the high cost of hajj packages this year.

A Bangladeshi will have to spend a minimum of around Tk 6 lakh to perform hajj under private and government management this year.

This year, hajj will be held on June 16 depending on the sighting of the moon.