DUSHANBE/KHUJAND, September 25, 2008, Asia-Plus — New details emerged today about the charter flight Khujand-Mashhad (Iran) that was supposed to carry Tajik Muslims wanting to perform Umrah (a pilgrimage to Mecca performed by Muslims that can be taken at any time of the year) to Mashhad. From Iran, they were supposed to fly to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Umrah is sometimes called the ”minor pilgrimage” or ”lesser pilgrimage”, the Hajj being the ”major” pilgrimage and which is compulsory for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it. According to some schools of Islamic thought, the Umrah is not compulsory but highly recommended.
The passengers have still failed to fly to Mashhad. The passengers on this flight are 97 people from the Sughd and Khatlon provinces. They include elderly people, the oldest of them is 87-year-old, and some of them needed medical aid yesterday. According to some sources, the passengers paid more than 2,000 US dollars each for this flight.
The flight was supposed to be operated on September 23 at 7:00 a.m. but the flight was delayed.
According to the administration of the international terminal at the Khujand airport, the Tajik national air carrier TajikAir, which should operate the flight, did not informed them about the reasons for the flight delay.
The terminal administration informed the Sughd regional transportation prosecutor’s office about the flight delay and the passengers lodged a collective complaint to the regional transportation prosecutor’s office, the terminal official said.
In the meantime, according to Halimkhon Kholov, director of the Dushanbe tour operator Eurotour, which is engaged in organization of participation of the mentioned people in the minor pilgrimage, the Iranian side refused to receive the plane.
“The pilgrims have only the Saudi Arabia’s visas and do not have the Iranian visas,” said Kholov, “They would had not needed the Iranian visas if we had flown to Mashhad in accordance with schedule on September 24 because on arrival in Mashhad, we would had flown at once to Jeddah by plane of Bahrain airlines.” According to him, TajikAir has asked them to give a written letter that they will not file any claim if they have any visa problems at the Mashhad airport. “We have given such a letter to the national air carrier,” Kholov said.
Meanwhile, the flight from Khujand to Ras Al Khaim (the United Arab Emirates) with another group of pilgrims on board that was also supposed to be operated yesterday evening was also delayed.
According to the TajikAir administration, the national air carrier is not to blame for the flight delays. “The point is that the tour operator Eurotour has not solved all organizational issues properly; the pilgrims did not get transit visas without which the Iranian MFA does not receive arriving foreign pilgrims,” the TajikAir official said.
He further added that according to the latest data, Eurotour today obtained transit visas for 94 pilgrims and now, the Iranian air authorities should allow the Mashhad airport to receive the Tajik plane.
