500 to pilgrimage to Mecca from Ingushetia

Over 500 pilgrims from Ingushetia will be given an opportunity to participate in the Hajj to Mecca this year. The first group, numbering over 200 people, is expected to depart on January 3, 2005. As of today, all arrangements for the action have almost been completed: foreign passports have been ordered, visas are being processed, officials of the Ingush Spiritual Administration of Moslems said. A group of Ingush businessmen working both in the republic and beyond its bounds support the action financially. The selection of people willing to pilgrimage was made among people of the scantiest means and excellent students of republican theological schools. "The record number of people, if compared with previous years, will be given an opportunity to perform the Hajj this year. There' bee about 540 pilgrims. (Editor's note: Last year this number did not exceed 300 people.) We've taken into consideration the pilgrims' requests and divided this year's trip into two stages — by land and air transport. We plan to dispatch the first group of 220 people as early as January 3, 2005," administrator of the Ingush Spiritual Administration of Moslems Ruslan Meyriyev said to the Caucasian Knot correspondent. "Thanks to the financial support of our fellow countrymen, some of the pilgrims, namely people of scanty means and students of republican theological schools, will go to Mecca free of charge. The others will pay for transport themselves."