Staff Reporter:
At least 27 Bangladeshi Hajj pilgrims have died of various causes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Among the deceased, 22 were males and five were females. Of them, 20 died in Makkah, four in Madinah, two in Mina, and one in Jeddah, the latest bulletin of the Hajj Management Portal under the Ministry of Religious Affairs said early Thursday.
As many as 85,225 pilgrims from Bangladesh arrived in Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj this year under government and private management.
Muslim pilgrims from all over the world performed Hajj on 15 June.
The first Hajj flight of the year left Dhaka for the KSA on 9 May and the last flight was operated on 12 June.
The return flights are scheduled to begin on 20 June and will continue till 22 July.
Hajj death toll passes 900
Friends and family searched for missing Hajj pilgrims on Wednesday as the death toll at the annual rituals, which were carried out in scorching heat, surged past 900.
An Arab diplomat told AFP that deaths among Egyptians alone had jumped to “at least 600,” from more than 300 a day earlier, mostly from the unforgiving heat.
That figure brought the total reported dead so far to 922, according to an AFP tally of figures released by various countries.
The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and all Muslims with the means must complete it at least once.
