Week-long Saudi ordeal ends as Umrah pilgrims return to Bengaluru

BENGALURU: As the aircraft began its descent into Bengaluru, Shehla Rukhsar could not hold back her tears. The 37-year-old homemaker, from Shampura near Kaval Byrasandra in north Bengaluru, had left her two children behind when she departed for Umrah pilgrimage on Feb 15, certain she would return from Saudi Arabia in two weeks. Instead, an unexpected ordeal kept her stranded in Medina for days.

On Monday morning, as the flight captain announced the landing, the thought of seeing her children again overwhelmed her.

Shehla was not alone. More than 50 Umrah pilgrims from Bengaluru, who had been stranded in Medina, finally returned home after nearly a week of uncertainty, flight cancellations, and mounting anxiety. When the group walked out of the arrival gates at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) around 10am, emotional reunions unfolded — families embracing, smiles replacing days of fear and exhaustion.


The routine pilgrimage had taken a sudden turn on the evening of March 1, when the group learnt that its return flight had been cancelled amid escalating tensions in West Asia. Airport shutdowns and airspace restrictions left the pilgrims stranded with little information on when services would resume. The group included elderly pilgrims, women, and toddlers, and the uncertainty quickly turned stressful as accommodation costs rose and hotel owners asked them to vacate.

According to the pilgrims, the hardest part was not knowing what would happen next. While life around them in Medina appeared normal, they struggled to book new tickets or secure accommodation. "Everyone around us was going about their day like nothing had happened, and we were the only ones stuck, unable to return home," said one pilgrim. "We contacted the Indian Embassy, and someone from the state govt called us once.

But after we explained everything, nothing happened despite multiple messages and calls... Nobody was there to say that you are our people and we will take care of you. That was the saddest thing."

For Syed Waseem, 36, who had travelled with five family members, the situation became frightening when their medicines ran out. His mother, who had undergone open-heart surgery a year ago, needed multiple daily medications. "We assumed we would be back in 14 days, so we carried only that much medicine," he said. "When it ran out, we panicked. Medicines in Saudi Arabia were different from those in India, so we had to search for alternatives for every dose, for blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, and blood thinners."

The first two days were especially difficult. Many of the pilgrims stayed awake through the night, calling relatives, travel agents, and authorities, desperately trying to find a solution. The Times of India, which learnt of their situation, highlighted their ordeal in a report titled ‘Savings run out for 50 pilgrims', published on March 2.

Soon after the report appeared, Active Bengaluru Foundation, a city-based non-profit, alerted its network in Saudi Arabia and reached out to the stranded group. The organisation helped cover half of the accommodation expenses, easing the immediate financial burden while the group waited for flight services to resume.

For the pilgrims, the help that arrived thousands of kilometres from home, and the moment they finally stepped onto Bengaluru soil, made the emotional homecoming even more meaningful.