Srinagar, Mar 13 (KNS): In order to cater the needs of those aspirants and pilgrims who want to visit holy Mecca and Medina, the Saudi Government has given registration to South Kashmir’s Anantnag district based Tour and Travel company for providing direct visa facilities to the Umrah aspirants, making it third such Travel agency in the Valley to issue direct visas to Umrah pilgrims.
Al-Ansar Tour & Travels would be dispatching a fifty member group on Thursday to Saudi for Umrah. The Managing director of the Al-Ansar agency Mushtaq Aziz said that they had applied for the facility a couple of months earlier which has been granted to them now.
He said the permission would enable them to issue visa directly to the Umrah aspirants and added that the first batch of 50 Umrah aspirants would be leaving for the holly city on Thursday.
Meanwhile, J&K Association of Haj and Umrah Companies Wednesday demanded operation of international flights from the Srinagar international Airport and alleged that the airport was not equipped the international standard facilities.
President of the association Sheikh Feroz while addressing a press conference demanded operation of international facilities from Srinagar. He said the Saudi government should open a consulate in Srinagar so that Haj and Umrah aspirants do not need to go to Delhi for visa and other travel documents. He said even after getting the visa facilities and international airport in Srinagar, the aspirants are required to travel to Delhi for onward journey to the holly city as no intentional flight is operating from here. The association urged government to approach Saudi government for opening consulate in Srinagar.
People of south Kashmir has taken a sigh of relief for coming to know about this registration. (KNS)