SIALKOT: The Ministry of Religious Affairs started training of intending Hajj pilgrims in the district. Deputy Director Hajj Operations Syed Mujeeb Akbar Shah presided over the training session on Jasmine Marquee Canal City Wazirabad Road. In the training session, Allama Imran Bashir, Prof. Tariq Shaukat and Younis Mughal provided training to more than 800 intending pilgrims regarding Hajj and administrative matters. Mufti Adnan said that this year, the Saudi government had directed all pilgrims to bring a smart/android mobile phone with them. He said the Saudi government had created two mobile applications for Hajj pilgrims called “Tawakalna” and “Etemarna” which could be downloaded from Google play/app stores. Applicants will need ID cards, passports and visa numbers to install the mobile application. He said, to enter Baitullah Sharif and Masjid-e-Nabvi and to offer Nawafil in Riazul Jannah, it was necessary to get prior permission through the mobile application. Similarly, intending pilgrims will have to know their working hours through the app before going for Umrah and Tawaf of Kaaba, so it would not be possible without smart-phone and android mobile phone, he added. Deputy Director Hajj Operations Syed Mujeeb Akbar Shah said that Pakistan International Airlines would operate Hajj flights from eight major cities of the country including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Multan, Peshawar, Quetta to Jeddah and Madina in Saudi Arabia and 297 flights would be operated for Hajj till August 13. At the end of this month, a series of flights for intending Hajj pilgrims would be started from Sialkot International Airport, he added. The Deputy Director Hajj Operations said that this year, around 2000 intending pilgrims from Sialkot would perform Hajj.