An Indian Man Crosses Wagah Border to Perform Hajj on Foot in Mecca.
After starting his 8,640-km journey from Malappuram on June 2, 2022, Shihab Chottur an Indian man was waiting for his visa in Amritsar for the past four months to continue his journey through Pakistan.
Shihab Chottur has so far covered seven states from Kerala to Punjab by walking 3,300 km.
They were barred from entering Pakistan in September last year because there is no transit visa agreement for people traveling on foot between New Delhi and Islamabad.
So Chottur chose to stay at a school in Amritsar while waiting for his visa.
He has now reached Pakistan after obtaining a two-day transit visa to Lahore.
The 29-year-old shared a video on his Instagram account while crossing the Wagah-Attari border proclaiming “Alhamdulillah has reached Pakistan“.
The Hajj aspirant says that the journey is not difficult for him because of the miles he needs to travel on foot, but the real difficulty lies in the preparations and permissions required for his journey.
“It took about six months to get permission for the pilgrimage,” he revealed.
However, he insisted that he never lost hope and continued to visit embassies in Delhi before finally being allowed to continue his journey.
Sources say that Chottur was not allowed to go to Taftan from Lahore due to security concerns, but the authorities have issued a two-day transit visa allowing him to go to the next destination from Lahore Airport.
It should be noted that a Pakistani student from Okara named Usman Arshad is also walking to Makkah with the hope of performing Hajj there this year.
He is currently in Iran and will travel to Iraq and Kuwait before reaching Mecca.
