Muslims mark Eid and final days of hajj in Saudi Arabia
Mina: Around 2.5 million pilgrims took part in a symbolic stoning of the devil on Saturday, marking the final days of the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and the start of the Eid al-Adha celebrations for Muslims around the world.
The five-day hajj pilgrimage is required of all Muslims once in their lifetime, if they are financially and physically able to make the journey.
Muslims around the world commemorate the end of hajj with Eid celebrations, including distributing meat to the poor.
"I came from Sudan to Mecca where I performed the pilgrimage," Mohammed Saleh said as he performed the final rites of hajj in Mina. "We hope all pilgrims will be successful in their hajj." Others too expressed a sense of gratitude to have performed the hajj.
Saudi Arabia said 1.85 million pilgrims from more than 160 different countries traveled to the kingdom for the hajj this year. Another 634,000 joined from within Saudi Arabia, nearly 70 per cent of them non-Saudi residents of the kingdom.
The hajj is one of the largest religious gatherings on earth and a massive logistical challenge for the Saudi government to oversee each year. The kingdom provides pilgrims with health care and buses for transportation, as well as meals, snacks and water along the routes of hajj.
Mina is a sprawling valley near Mecca where thousands of air-conditioned tents are erected to house pilgrims for the final leg of the hajj.
Because of the narrow roads between tents, it is also where the deadliest hajj disasters have occurred, including a 2015 stampede and crush that killed more than 2,400 people.
The Saudi government has since widened roads and monitors the flow of people and crowds with tens of thousands of soldiers, guards, policemen and cameras.
Saudi media reported King Salman visited Mina on Sunday to supervise the services provided during the hajj. He included among his guests for the hajj this year 200 survivors and relatives of victims of the mosque attacks in New Zealand, where a gunman opened fire and killed 51 people in March.
It is in Mina where Muslims believe Ibrahim's faith was tested when God commanded him to sacrifice his only son Ismail. Ibrahim was prepared to submit to the command, but then God stayed his hand, sparing his son.
In Mina, pilgrims walk long distances on pedestrian-only streets toward a multi-story complex housing large pillars. There, they cast seven pebbles each at three pillars in a ritual meant to symbolize the casting away of evil and sin.
Muslims believe the hajj offers the chance of atonement and an opportunity to erase past sins. The first two days of the hajj are spent in Makkah and other areas around it in deep prayer, contemplation and worship.
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Fire in coach of New Delhi-Chennai express train; no casualty
Nagpur (PTI): A coach of the New Delhi-Chennai Grant Trunk Express caught fire in Maharashtra's Wardha district on Tuesday morning, railway officials said.
There were no casualties, they said.
Train 12616 New Delhi-Chennai (Tambaram) Grant Trunk Express left from Nagpur in the morning. While it was heading towards Sindi railway station in Wardha, smoke was detected in the last guard coach of the train at 11.09 am, Central Railway spokesperson Sanjay Muley told PTI.
The train was stopped on the Sindi-Tuljapur section, the affected coach was detached immediately, and the fire brigade was called, he said.
All passengers in the train and the coach concerned were safe, the official said.
The cause of the fire will be known after a detailed investigation.
The train will resume its journey in some time without the affected coach, the official added.
