Jakarta, NU Online
Indonesian pilgrims are preparing to return home after performing the jumrah — a stoning of the devil ritual and the last major haj practice, which had taken lives in the past.

Religious Affairs Ministry spokesperson Rosidin Karidi told The Jakarta Post on Friday that all Indonesian pilgrims were in their respective hotels after finishing the ritual on Thursday afternoon, Saudi Arabian time.

“After performing the jumrah, all pilgrims returned back to their hotels on buses. Half of them are now waiting for their return flights to Indonesia, while the rest will go to Medina first to perform the mandatory Arabian prayers,” he said.

The stoning ritual is the last major activity of the pilgrimage and is often regarded as the most dangerous part of the haj, as it involves large crowds, confined spaces and tight scheduling.

Last year, a stampede claimed more than 2,400 lives during the stoning ritual, 129 of whom were Indonesian.

The tragedy has the Indonesian haj committee on alert over the need to strengthen supervision during the ritual. This year, the committee deployed 3,250 personnel to ensure safety and to keep the pilgrims in line with the strict rules consensually agreed upon in order to prevent another calamity.

“This year, most Indonesian pilgrims were very disciplined in following the instructions for the ritual. They carefully went through the Mina underground tunnel, which is equipped with an escalator to ease the passage of the pilgrims,” he said.

He said the committee had intensively conducted an awareness campaign ahead of the stoning ritual to make sure that participants followed all instructions given by the authorities in a bid to avoid any unwanted incidents. “We have assigned security personnel to specifically ensure that all pilgrims remain in order,” he said.

Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saefuddin said he was grateful that the process ran according to plan.

“Thank God that the stoning the devil process ran smoothly. We have to be grateful for this,” he told reporters after observing the ritual in Mecca on Wednesday.

This year, Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, sent 154,441 pilgrims, the largest quota among participating countries.

Each Muslim is obliged to perform the pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime, provided they are physically fit and financially able.

The minister said that, overall, this year’s haj was better executed as compared to last year. He cited punctuality of air and land transportation and quality of catering services.

He added that some services still needed to be improved. “We have to develop services, particularly in Mina and Arafah, because the peak of the haj is in these two cities. We need to improve air conditioning and to provide better shelters for our pilgrims." (JP/Masdar)