UNB, Dhaka :The first hajj flight carrying 401 Bangladeshi pilgrims to Jeddah of Saudi Arabia took off from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital on Thursday morning.The flight ‘BG-1011’ of Biman Bangladesh Airlines departed from the airport at 8:05am.Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon and Religious Affairs Minister Principal Motiur Rahman and high officials of the two ministries saw the pilgrims off at the airport.Besides, three more flights with hajj pilgrims will depart from the Dhaka airport on Thursday.Required numbers of Hajj flights will also operate from Chittagong and Sylhet cities as well this year.Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the hajj programme for 2016 at the Hajji Camp at the city’s Ashkona on Wednesday. Some 1,01,758 Bangladeshi hajj pilgrims are expected to perform the holy hajj this year.Of them, 91,758 pilgrims will perform hajj under private management while the rest 10,000 under the government arrangement. This year, the hajj flights of Biman will continue till September 5 while the return hajj flights will begin on September 17 and continue till October 15.A 292-member Bangladeshi Hajj team comprising physicians, pharmacists, nurses/brothers and assistants would go to Saudi Arabia to provide healthcare facilities to hajj pilgrims.
