Telangana Haj Committee cancels 3,757 Haj applications after Saudi Arabia bars foreign pilgrims

"The ministry of Haj and Umrah, Saudi Arabia, issued a statement informing that due to the COVID-19 pandemic it has decided to allow only citizens and residents inside the country to attend Haj 1442 in limited numbers. International Haj has been cancelled," said Dr. Maqsood Ahmed Khan, CEO of the Haj Committee of India.

This year's pilgrimage was set to start on 17 July and end on 22 July. Last year also, the Saudi Arabia government had canceled the Haj pilgrimage due to the pandemic.

This year, Saudi Arabia will has decided to allow a maximum of 60,000 pilgrims inside the country and has barred foreigners from haj. In a statement on Saturday, the country's ministry of haj and umrah announced that "only 60,000 vaccinated residents and citizens living in the Kingdom will be allowed to perform this year's Haj pilgrimage due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic".

The ministry tweeted, "Against the backdrop of what the world is witnessing and due to the continuous developments of the coronavirus pandemic as well as the emergence of new mutations, Haj registration will be limited to residents and citizens from inside the Kingdom only."

Before the pandemic enforced social distancing globally, some 2.5 million pilgrims used to visit the holiest sites of Islam in Mecca and Medina for the week-long haj, and the lesser, year-round umrah pilgrimage, which altogether earned the kingdom about $12 billion a year, according to official data.