Two Tajik Hajj pilgrims – a 62-year-old Muhammad Rasoulov from Isfara city in Sughd province and a 64-year-old Qizlargul Tojiyeva from Qubodiyon district in Khatlon province – died of heart attack, a source within the Committee on Religious Affairs (CRA) under the Government of Tajikistan, said, citing a doctor accompanying Tajik Hajj pilgrims. 

“Janozah took place at Masjid al-Haram in Mecca,” the source noted.

Janozah is the Islamic funeral prayer; a part of the Islamic funeral ritual.  The prayer is performed in congregation to seek pardon for the deceased and all dead Muslims.

Masjid al-Haram (The Inviolable Mosque) also known as the Great Mosque of Mecca, is a mosque that surrounds the Kaaba in Mecca, in the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia. It is a site of pilgrimage in the Hajj, which every Muslim must do at least once in their lives if able, and is also the main phase for the ʿUmrah, the lesser pilgrimage that can be undertaken any time of the year. The rites of both pilgrimages include circumambulating the Kaaba within the mosque. The Great Mosque includes other important significant sites, including the Black Stone, the Zamzam Well, Maqam Ibrahim, and the hills of Safa and Marwa.

According to data from CRA, other Tajik Hajj pilgrims are healthy.

photo / CRA, Tajikistan.

“But because of the excessive heat and drinking cold water, some of them see a doctor in connection with a sore throat, a cold and high fever,” says the source.  “They also see a doctor because of indigestion, muscle pain high blood pressure.” 

He further noted that no case of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have been registered among Tajik Hajj pilgrims  

Recall, the first group of Tajik pilgrims flew to Saudi Arabia on June 20.  Tajik Hajj pilgrims will return home on July 17.