Pakistan ranks top list of the countries whose citizens visited Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah pilgrimage.

The Umrah pilgrimage season started on August 31, 2019.

As many as 2,031,751 Umrah visas issued since the season started about four months ago.

A total of 1,566,754 pilgrims arrived Saudi Arabia.

According to official statistics by the Kingdom, over 4,00,000 Pakistani citizens performed Umrah during this period.

The Saudi ministry said 411,140 pilgrims came from Pakistan which tops all the countries in the number of Umrah pilgrims.

Among other countries 368,193 pilgrims from Indonesia, 221,956 from India, 97,709 from Malaysia, 65,083 from Turkey.

Whereas, 53,962 from Egypt, 47,962 from Bangladesh, 45,950 from Algeria, 29,544 from the United Arab Emirates and 23,926 from Jordan.

Pakistan’s Religious Affairs Ministry Spokesman said one of the reasons behind the growing number of pilgrims from Pakistan is the strengthening of bilateral relations between the two countries.

However, the Saudi authorities said a total of 1,221,304 pilgrims have left the Kingdom after completing their Umrah.

They visited Madinah to pay homage to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and pray at his mosque.

The ministry introduced a new service aimed at covering the Umrah pilgrims coming from outside with insurance against emergency medical cases, delay or canceling of flights, incidents, disasters and others.

The initiative was within the programs of the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision aimed at providing excellent services to the Guests of Allah.