First Indian Haj pilgrims arrive

September 8, 2013

Jeddah, Sep 8: The first group of 235 Indian pilgrims arrived on an Air India flight in Madinah on Saturday from Goa.

According to Irshad Ahmad, consul for press and information at the Indian Consulate in Jeddah, Ambassador Hamid Ali Rao and Consul General Faiz Ahmad Kidwai welcomed the pilgrims.

The oldest pilgrim is an 82-year-old woman named Aisamma, and the youngest a 24-year-old man named Fawaz. A medical team, with male and female doctors and nurses, was present at the airport. All the pilgrims were in good health and looking forward to performing their Haj rites.

Ahmad said there are 10 housing groups for Indian pilgrims in Madinah. The first batch of pilgrims will stay with Ilyas Group in a building called Safia Ilyas in the Markazia area.

After spending eight days there, they will proceed to Makkah by road.

Welcoming the pilgrims, Rao wished them good health and hoped they would perform their pilgrimage with ease.

Ahmad said an online complaint management system has been provided in both Madinah and Makkah to address any complaints from pilgrims.

Besides the main Indian Haj offices in Makkah and Madinah, there are five branch offices in Madinah, five branch dispensaries and a 10-bed dispensary. There are 13 branch offices in Makkah, 13 branch dispensaries, one 50-bed hospital and one 30-bed hospital in Azizia.

The pilgrims can obtain Adahi coupons (for sacrificial animals) from branch offices in Madinah and Makkah.

They also have the facility to check-in baggage remotely in Makkah and Madinah. All pilgrims will be given cans of Zamzam when they leave for home.

There will be 193 flights to Madinah bringing in 60,800 pilgrims. Air India will fly 88 flights to Madinah and Saudia 105.

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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