Umrah aspirants asked to go through registered companies

Islamabad: The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony has asked the aspirants of Umrah to make (Umrah) deal of performing sacred religious ceremony with only registered Companies to avoid any fraud.

An official of Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony told APP that the list of authorised Umrah companies is available at www.hajjinfo.org and intending aspirants should check the registered companies before inking agreement with any company to perform Umrah.

Pinpointing the reasons of fraud, he said the aspirants, who want cheap packages, special residences, travel throughchoice airline that too in special dates, travel to Saudia in last week of Ramzan-ul-Mubarak, or Rabi-ul-Awwal or by end of December were prone to fraud. Giving tips of performing cheap Umrah, he said the aspirants should go to perform Umrah in groups, get a shared residence, go to Saudia in off peak days.

He said the people should avoid searching cheapest packages, getting tickets cheaper from market rates, giving passports to unregistered companies or agents as most of such companies were unregistered and thus prove fraud in most cases.