Pakistani pilgrim walks 6387 km to make hajj to Mecca

A Pakistani national has covered 6,387 kilometers on foot to make his hajj to Mecca, the Al Arabiya television channel said on Sundat. The 37-year-old man set off for his pilgrimage on June 7 from Karachi, walked across Iran, Iraq and Jordan to arrive in Saudi Arabia on October 1. The man told Al Arabiya that he had ventured his three-month hajj as a mission of peace. “I want peace in the entire world and I want the Islamic nation to unite like the European Union,” he said, adding that he also wanted to “condemn terrorism in all its manifestations.” The man is an experience walker. In 2007, he walked 1,999 kilometers across his home country in 85 days. In 2009, he covered a distance of 327 kilometers from Lahore to Islamabad in 14 days and another 22 kilometers from Islamabad to the settlement of Chakuti in nine days. In 2013, about 1.3 million people are to make the hajj. More than 16,000 Russian Muslims will travel to Mecca on a hajj this year, according to the quota approved by Saudi Arabia.