Saudi security authorities have not detained any suspects linked to the Al-Qaeda organization of Osama Bin Laden during this Haj season, disclosed the Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat daily, he denied a report carried by the Associated Press that Saudi authorities had held a number of persons linked to Al-Qaeda, who tried to sneak into the Kingdom holding fake passports under the cover of Haj.
The American news agency also reported that the Al-Qaeda suspects were detained on arrival at King Abdul Aziz Airport in Jeddah, the major gateway of pilgrims. “There is no truth in this report. Saudi Arabia uses all its resources to help pilgrims perform their religious duties in peace and security. We are not concerned with the nationality of the pilgrim ,” the prince said.
“Our duty is to provide them with all facilities to perform their compulsory religious duty in the right manner. The pilgrims, naturally, return to their respective countries after completing their Haj rituals,” he explained.
The American news agency also reported that the arrested included Arab and Pakistani nationals.
More than two million pilgrims from 170 countries performed Haj this year. However, the interior minister pointed out that there were several cases of pilgrims arriving with forged Haj visas. He pointed out that a number of them had been allowed to perform Haj. “We will inform the authorities in their countries about the forgeries,” he was quoted by Arab News daily.
“We have found cases of forgery among some pilgrims. We received them considering their situation as they were very old and we did not want to prevent them from doing Haj. So we allowed them. Naturally, they will return to their respective countries,” he said. (Albawaba.com)
