Giving the government a five-day deadline for resolving the stalemate over Hajj flights, 363 Hajj agencies, responsible for arranging the religious journey to Makkah for 56,000 prospective pilgrims, yesterday decided to surrender their licences on November 15.

The decision taken by the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) came while the Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB)

was holding a meeting with the foreign airlines last night in a last-ditch attempt to bring down this year's highly inflated Hajj flight fare of $1,350 per passenger.

Meanwhile in Chittagong, Mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury yesterday issued a seven-day ultimatum for the government to arrange Hajj flights for thousands of non-ballotee pilgrims at fair fare.

The craft-crunched state-run Biman Bangladesh Airlines has already expressed its inability to fly

more than 4,000 ballotee pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for January 9, 2006 Hajj while the foreign airliners have asked for a highly inflated fare of $1,350, compared to only $950 of Biman.

As the ministries of civil aviation and religious affairs have yet to take any initiative to get airplanes at cheaper fare for the overwhelming majority of 56,000 people intending to make Hajj, HAAB, ATAB and various other organisations of Hajjis accuse the government of being indifferent to resolving the crisis.

After November 8 emergency meeting of its central executive body, the HAAB held an extra-ordinary general meeting till late last night and decided to surrender licences and demand immediate resignation of the state ministers for civil aviation and religious affairs for 'trying to evade responsibility'.

ATAB Secretary General Golam Mustafa also blamed the Hajj flight crisis on the government's negligence and unrealistic fare hike by foreign airlines.

Assistant private secretary to State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Mir Nasir told The Daily Star last night that the minister, who returned from Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore last night after having treatment for acute headache, will have to take rest for 10 more days.

Earlier State Minister for Religious Affairs Mosharraf Hossain Shahjahan had told The Daily Star that Hajj is mandatory only for the people who could afford the costs and not for others.

On the possibility of government intervention in lowering the fare demanded by the foreign airlines, the minister said, "They (foreign airlines) appears to be an united front and are asking for high fares in chorus. I can't comment now whether the government will intervene or not."

Amidst such uncertainty, most of the Bangladeshi pilgrims fear that they would not be able to perform Hajj this time as the last date for depositing Muallim fees to Saudi government expires on November 20 and the agencies would no longer be able to rent homes for them in Saudi Arabia after a week.

Chittagong City Corporation Mayor Mohiuddin Chowdhury said, "The government of India, where majority of the population are Hindu, reduced the fare for the pilgrimage to $400 from $500, whereas being a predominantly Muslim country we are doing the opposite.”

He was addressing a protest rally organised by the association of Hajj agencies in front of the Chittagong Press Club yesterday.