M'SIAN PILGRIMS FUND TO CONSIDER UNIFORMS FOR PILGRIMS

From Zulkefli Salleh

MECCA, Nov 14 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Pilgrims Fund Board (Tabung Haji)
will study the possibility of having Malaysian haj pilgrims wear uniforms during
their stay in the Holy Land for identification purposes.

Head of the Malaysian haj delegation Mohd Salleh Mubin said the cost, to be
borne by the pilgrims, must also be considered.

"Currently, the haj pilgrims are given options on what to wear in the Holy
Land but we encourage them to wear the baju Melayu," he told Malaysian
journalists here Thursday.

He said haj pilgrims from Turkey and several other countries already had
uniforms which made it easy to identify them.

Meanwhile, he said Tabung Haji had formed a four-member patrol team to look
for Malaysian pilgrims who got lost in Mecca.

To avoid such incident, he said the pilgrims were encouraged to walk in
groups, wear their identification wrist band and badge, look out for signboards,
keep adequate amount of cash and stay out of trouble.

On other development, Mohd Salleh said the movement of over a million
pilgrims, including 26,000 Malaysians, from here to Arafah and Mina for this
year's haj was expected to be smooth following the upgrading of the
'taradudyiah' (transportation) system for haj pilgrims from Southeast Asia and
Africa.

He said the shuttle system was previously used to transport Turkish haj
pilgrims to Arafah, Muzdalifah and Mina but was recently extended to pilgrims
from Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries as well as Africa.

"They are now reducing the number of buses but at the same time increasing
the frequency of the shuttle to reduce traffic congestion," he said.

The 22km journey from here to the Arafah plain for wukuf on the 10th day of
Zulhijjah, followed by an 8km journey from Arafah to Muzdalifah and another 7km
to Mina, usually takes hours due to the vast number of pilgrims involved.
-- BERNAMA