Kabul: A pilgrim from southeastern Afghanistan who became a social media sensation last month on a bicycle trip to Mecca has reached Saudi Arabia, Afghan officials said on Wednesday, after his expedition sponsored a series of unexpected turns, including a Hui. flight.
Noor Mohammed left his home in Layek village in the Karabagh district of Ghazni province in early May, planning to travel more than 6,000 kilometers to reach Islam’s holy city by July and perform the Hajj.
Through Afghanistan, a Taliban scholar offered to help him get a plane ticket, but the 48-year-old refused to go the extra mile to fulfill his sacred obligation.
Little did he know that help would soon be needed when after three weeks he was stranded in Iran, trying to obtain an Iraqi visa in the border town of Khorramshahr.
“My Afghan friends promised me a visa to Iraq there,” Mohamed told Arab News, as he described his further efforts to obtain a Kuwaiti visa instead. Again, to no avail.
That’s when he decided to reach out to the scholar.
“I had no other way. I contacted Sheikh Hammasi via WhatsApp,” he said. “He introduced me to an Afghan businessman who helped me stay in Iran and return to Kabul.”
In Kabul, he was immediately accepted for a Hajj preparation course, where the authorities took care of his departure. His flight was reportedly covered by acting Interior Minister Serajuddin Haqqani, a close aide of Anas Haqqani – the minister’s brother and senior Taliban leader – told Arab News.
A few days before leaving for Saudi Arabia, Mohamed said, “The Hajj ministry processed my passport on an urgent basis.”
After all her travel documents were processed, she took off from Kabul on Tuesday.
“He was named after him on the first flight,” said Mawlawi Israulhaq, an official in the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs. “He traveled to Jeddah, from where he would join other Afghan pilgrims in Mecca.”
Mohamed was preparing for his flight days after the devastating earthquake in eastern Afghanistan that killed an estimated 1,150 people last week.
He is praying for the victims and is told that when he reaches Mecca he will remember them too.
“As soon as I reach Mecca, I will pray to Allah that it should be easy for the families who have lost their loved ones and their homes,” he said. “I’m going to ask them to solve all the Afghan problems.”