NRI website YaHind.Com launches Haj message cell

 BY A STAFF REPORTER

Dec 29, 2004

AN NRI website, YaHind.Com, which will soon open its offices in Dubai Media City, has activated its Haj Message Cell 2005.

Under this programme, people worldwide can send messages to Indian pilgrims through the website and they will be quickly delivered to the addressees.

The cell has been developed by the Riyadh-based YaHind.Com, an NRI portal that provides extensive information about a wide range of topics to Indian citizens living abroad.

The website, which receives more than 45,000 hits per day including 35 per cent from the Gulf, has deployed a team of volunteers to deliver messages to the pilgrims in the several camps in Makkah, Madinah and Mina.

The Chief Executive Officer of the site Syed Ziaur Rahman said that the relatives of the Indian Haj pilgrims who wish to communicate with the pilgrims could send e-mails to YaHind.

Volunteers will pass on the messages to the respective addressees in the holy cities.

"We are offering this service for the last four years and many people have benefitted and appreciated our efforts, including Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC, USA (csis.org/mideast) as they have said in their research paper "High-Tech Hajj".

The service is offered to the pilgrims and their relatives who live outside Saudi Arabia, free of charge, he stressed.

Zia also said pilgrims' Haj-related questions could be answered by a panel of Islamic scholars available online. A detailed Orientation Manual issued by the Indian Consulate General, Jeddah, is also available online for the benefit of the pilgrims.

Translation of the Holy Quran in English and translation of the Sahih Bukhari Hadiths in English condensed version can also be downloaded from YaHind.Com.

Internet users in other parts of the world can search for pilgrims' addresses, flight details, accommodation and addresses of their agents.

Lately, YaHind has been registered as a company in India and will soon open its office in Dubai Media City.

Plans are underway to register under local sponsors in Saudi Arabia to open offices in different cities, Zia said.