India’s former Cabinet minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, 4th left, South Asian Pilgrim Establishment Chairman Dr. Rafat Ismail Badr, 5th left, Consul General B.S. Mubarak and Haj Consul Mohammed Shahid Alam pose for a group photo with Saudi Haj operators (muttawifeen) in Jeddah on Thursday.

The Indian Haj mission honored five of the 28 Haj operators involved in providing services to Indian pilgrims on Thursday.

The winning operators, called muttawifeen in Arabic, were Mamdooh Mohammed Amin Mahboob, Naif Najeeb Abdul Hamid Khan, Zohair Ibrahim Mohammed Hussain, Saeed Mohammed Saleh Mohammed Hussain and Reshaad Abdul Muqtadir Iskandar.

The winners were presented with the awards by India’s former Cabinet minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, who is chairman of India’s Long-Term Accommodation Committee (LTAC).

Hussain praised the Haj service operators and companies for their services. “India and Saudi Arabia enjoy strong relations, and these ties will be further strengthened and cemented with the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Saudi Arabia,” he said.

“We have a huge population of Muslims in India and we have immense respect for Saudi Arabia,” he said. “I have been coming here since 2000, when I led India’s Haj good will delegation. Things have improved drastically in these 16 years and the government and the South Asian Pilgrim Est. deserves all appreciation.”

He said under Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, India’s relationship with Saudi Arabia has been cemented further. “Indian Muslims have a huge attachment to Saudi Arabia. It is the wish of every Indian Muslim to come to Saudi Arabia to perform Haj and Umrah. In the past there were not many Indians who came for Umrah (the minor pilgrimage), but now those coming for Umrah are almost equal, if not more, than for Haj,” he said.

“The five operators were selected from among the best of the best,” said Consul General B.S. Mubarak. Explaining the criteria for the award, he said there were many variables taken into consideration.

“How our pilgrims were received at the airport, how was their baggage handled, their transportation from the airport to their accommodation and from Makkah to Mina, and then to Arafat from Mina and back to Muzdalifah … All these were taken into account during the selection process,” said Mubarak.

He said reports and inputs from people on the ground and pilgrims formed the basis for the selection of the five awardees.

All 28 muttawifeen are linked to the South Asian Pilgrim Establishment, whose chairman, Dr. Rafat Ismail Badr, was the key guest at the event. He thanked Mubarak, Haj Committee of India Chairman Qaiser Shamim and the Indian Haj missions for their efforts to coordinate services between various agencies.

“Our objective and our constant quest is to make the journey of the pilgrim comfortable,” said Badr. Welcoming the new Haj Consul Mohammed Shahid Alam, he said the coming Haj season is going to be extremely hot. “We are looking forward to meeting the Indian officials to plan a proper mechanism to deal with the vagaries of the weather during Haj 2016,” he added.

Prominent among those present at the event were LTAC members — BJP politician Abdul Rasheed Ansari and Supreme Court advocate Haris Beeran.

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