RI ups security for haj pilgrims

Fifty security officers, comprising members of the National Police, military (TNI) and boy scouts, have been deployed to Saudi Arabia to safeguard Indonesian haj pilgrims during this year's pilgrimage season, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali says.

The measure was taken following earlier reports of burglaries of the Indonesian haj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia.

“The ironic thing is that from what we have heard the perpetrators are also Indonesians who had been working in Saudi for a while,” Surya said Tuesday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

When asked about the additional haj quota, Surya assured that the government would do its utmost to send off additional haj pilgrim groups to conduct the pilgrimage this year.

In 2011, the Indonesian government plans to send more than 200,000 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.