Hawzah News Agency- Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian, deputy interior minister and head of Iran’s Arbaeen headquarters, said the massive gathering was held with minimal incidents despite extreme heat and a sharp rise in the number of travelers.
Speaking at a ceremony in the holy city of Qom, Pourjamshidian said road accident fatalities and other deaths during this year’s Arbaeen dropped by around 40 to 50 percent compared with previous years.
The official also noted major improvements in border crossings, saying pilgrims in past years sometimes faced waits of more than ten hours or even a full day. This year, he said, entry and exit procedures were much faster thanks to better coordination among Iranian and Iraqi authorities.
Pourjamshidian stressed the popular nature of the Arbaeen march, saying officials tried not to take over hosting duties from the Iraqi people.
“We only stepped in where matters were beyond public capacity, such as water and electricity infrastructure, rescue services, and essential needs,” he said.
More than 3,000 registered mourning tents, known as mawakeb, served pilgrims across Iran, at border points, and inside Iraq, alongside thousands of others run by volunteers, he added.
The deputy minister said more than 20 million pilgrims from around the world gathered in the Iraqi holy cities of Karbala and Najaf for this year’s Arbaeen, with Iranians accounting for roughly 3.5 million of the total. Including those who traveled during the first ten days of Muharram, the number of Iranian pilgrims exceeded four million.
Arbaeen marks the 40th day after the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS), the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, and is one of the world’s largest annual religious gatherings.
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