First group of haj pilgrims home
JAKARTA (JP): A group of haj pilgrims from Bandung arrived at Soekarno-Hatta airport on Saturday marking the start of the month-long return of the approximately 205,000 Indonesians who made the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Secretary general of the Ministry of Religious Affairs Mubarok welcomed the 453 returnees who alighted from their on-time Garuda Airways GA7201 aircraft.
The haj pilgrims were then taken to their hometown by air- conditioned tourist buses, without having to stay in the haj dormitory in Pondok Gede, East Jakarta as returning pilgrims normally have to do.
Three other batches touched down respectively in Surakarta, Central Java, Makassar, South Sulawesi and Medan, North Sumatra on Saturday.
These were followed on Sunday by the arrival of groups in the Aceh capital of Banda Aceh, Surabaya in East Java and Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, while the first haj pilgrims destined for Batam will arrive on Monday.
The last Indonesian haj pilgrims to leave Saudi Arabia are expected to depart on April 5.
With an increase of 24,000 in the number of pilgrims from Indonesia compared to last year, the government has designated seven airports this year as embarkation and arrival points. These are Adisumarmo airport in Surakarta, Soekarno-Hatta in Jakarta, Juanda in Surabaya, Hasanuddin in Makassar, Polonia in Medan, Sepinggan in Balikpapan and Sultan Iskandar Muda in Banda Aceh.
Four Indonesians were among the 35 pilgrims killed in a stampede during the "Stoning of Satan" ritual on Monday. The number of Indonesians who died in this year's pilgrimage reached 104 following the incident.
Another tragedy is awaiting many of the Indonesian pilgrims on their arrival home, particularly the 296 Madurese migrants who were in Saudi Arabia when their homes in the Central Kalimantan regency of Sampit were torched.
The Madurese pilgrims are now to return to their home island of Madure in East Java, rather than proceed to the riot-torn town of Sampit.
They are expected to land at Sepinggan airport in Balikpapan and Adisumarmo airport in Surakarta either on Thursday or Friday before heading for Surabaya for a stopover en route to Madura.
Those arriving in Surakarta will be transported to Surabaya by bus, while those flying into Balikpapan will be taken to the East Java capital by ship.
"We are ready to welcome them and exempt them from accommodation fees during their stay in the haj dormitory here, even if there are more of them than expected," Syamsuddin, the deputy head of haj affairs at East Java's regional office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, told Antara.
He said the government would cover the transportation and accommodation expenses of the displaced Madurese pilgrims. (amd)