Dhaka, Feb. 8 -- Performing Hajj has become financially challenging for the middle-income group, as a total of 44,043 Hajj quotas out of 127,198 allocated for Bangladesh remained vacant.

Despite the demand from many aspiring pilgrims for the government to lower Hajj package prices, including airfares, to fill the stipulated quota, the registration deadline closed at 11 pm on Tuesday with over 44,000 slots unfilled.

Bangladesh is now in the position of returning these unused quotas to Saudi Arabia.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs reported that, although Hajj registration opened on November 15 last year, only 82,966 out of the 127,198 potential pilgrims had registered by Tuesday night (February 6).

Among these, 4,260 registered under ...