ISLAMABAD: The recent Hajj 2025 pilgrimage was attended by pilgrims with the host Saudi authorities scrambling to avoid last year’s 1,000-plus deaths in sweltering heat.
Around 1.4 million pilgrims arrived in Saudi Arabia ahead of the Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam that must be performed at least once by all Muslims with the means.
Saudi authorities had taken heat protection measures — mobilising more than 40 government agencies and 250,000 officials —such as extra shade to avoid a repeat of last year, when 1,301 people died as temperatures hit 51.8°C (125.2°F).
However, sources within Pakistan’s Ministry of Religious Affairs have said that as many as 18 Pakistani pilgrims died in this year’s Hajj including 10 men and eight women.
The majority of those who died, the sources added, were elderly people who died due to heart attacks and various diseases and were buried in Jannatul Baqi in Saudi Arabia.
The figure is lower than last year’s fatalities of Pakistani pilgrims where 35 Pakistanis had died performing Hajj in 2024.
It is pertinent to know that as part of this year’s precautionary measures, enlarged by 50,000 square metres (12 acres), thousands of additional medics were on standby and more than 400 cooling units were deployed to facilitate the pilgrims.
