TEHRAN — Some 1.8 million pilgrims from Iran have received visas to participate in the Arbaeen trek, an official with Interior Ministry has said.

So far some 1.3 million of the pilgrims have crossed Mehran, Shalamcheh and Chazzabeh borders to go to Karbala and about 2 percent of the pilgrims have flown to Iraq, Shahriar Heidari said on Thursday, IRIB reported.

Mojtaba Karimi an official with Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization also said on Thursday that currently visa issuance for Arbaeen pilgrims takes less than a day and it is predicted that some 200,000 more visas will be issued over the next few days. 

Mahmoud Mohammadi-Nasab head of rescue and relief committee of Arbaeen pilgrimage also highlighted that there are no signs of infectious diseases outbreak and that 2,000 healthcare providers, including nurses and doctors are providing the pilgrims with healthcare services. 

Arbaeen pilgrimage, which is also known as Arbaeen trek, is a spiritual trip participated by hundreds of thousands of Shia and Sunni Muslims as well as followers of other religions such as Christians and Zoroastrians, etc. every year to mark the end of the 40-day mourning period of Imam Hossein (AS).

Every year pilgrims start their walk from various cities to the holy shrine of Imam Hossein (AS) in Karbala days or even weeks before Arbaeen- 40th day of Imam Hossein (AS) martyrdom falling on October 30- to grieve the doleful passing of the Imam and his loyal companions at the Battle of Karbala on Muharram 10 in the year 61 AH (680 CE).

According to a report by YJC published on Friday last year some 2.3 million Iranian pilgrims took part in the spiritual exercise. This is while in 2011 only 50,000 took the trek to Karbala which shows a great surge in the number of pilgrims taking the long walk to pay tribute to the third Shia Imam.

MQ/MG