Dhaka: The Ministry of Religious Affairs has said that pre-registration for the Hajj will continue throughout the year.
This was stated in a press release sent by senior information officer of the Ministry of Religious Affairs Mohammad Anwar Hossain on Wednesday (September 9).
The statement said, the last date for pre-registration for Hajj next year is September 30, 2020. The news that has been spread in various media is not correct. Pre-registration for Hajj will continue throughout the year.
Earlier, various media outlets reported that the pre-registration deadline for those wishing to perform Hajj in 2021 has been fixed till September 30.
According to the Ministry of Religion, those who did not withdraw the pre-registration or final registration money for the Hajj in 2020; they will get priority to perform Hajj next year (2021). And those who have withdrawn money will have to re-register for Hajj next year.
It has been found out that even though they could not go for Hajj this time, many are pre-registering in the hope of performing Hajj next year as the situation in corona is improving. So far one lakh 62 thousand 320 people have completed pre-registration. Of these, 3,360 are under government management and 1,58,960 are under private management.
No one from Bangladesh could go for Hajj this year due to global corona pandemic. However, many had finally completed the registration and made all kinds of preparations. A few of these pilgrims have canceled their registration with their money back. Others are hoping to go on Hajj next year.
At present there are 62,315 final registered. Of these, 3,104 are under government management and 59,211 are under private management.
Due to the corona pandemic, no Muslim from any country other than Saudi Arabia has been able to participate in this year's (2020) Hajj. Hajj has been completed with the participation of a limited number of Musallis. Umrah activities have not started yet. It is unknown at this time when it will start. Hopefully, next year the corona situation will return to normalcy. Then there will be no obstacle in performing Hajj. Many are pre-registering with such expectations.
According to the agreement of the government of Bangladesh with Saudi Arabia in 2020, one lakh 37 thousand 198 Bangladeshi pilgrim’s quota was fixed. Of these, the quota was one lakh 20 thousand uhnder private management and 18 thousand 198 under government management.
Everything in the country is slowly being opened up to the corona situation in Saudi Arabia. Ninety thousand mosques have already been opened for prayers in the country, including the Nababi Mosque. But the Haram Sharif (Ka’ba mosque) has not yet been opened in Makkah, where there is a limited number of congregations and Juma on Fridays.