Tehran, Iran, November 20
By Mehdi Sepahvand – Trend:
Over 1,000 buses have been stationed at Iran’s border crossing of Mehran to retake religious tourists home from Iraq.
On November 19, some 92,000 Iranians used 800 buses to go home from Mehran, according to Alireza Shahraki Sanavi, an official with Iran’s Road Transport Organization, IRNA news agency reported November 20.
This year close to 3 million Iranians traveled to Iraq to observe the Shia pilgrimage on the day of Arbaeen (which this year falls on November 20).
Called the biggest human gathering in history, Arbaeen this year drew over 20 million lovers of the third Shia Imam Hussain in the Iraqi city of Karbala.
According to Shahraki, other than Mehran, 350 and 250 buses are also stationed in the border crossings of Shalamcheh and Chazzabeh respectively, where smaller numbers of pilgrims used to go to Karbala.
The government this year authorized the bus transport syndicate to increase bus fares for Arbaeen travels to two times the regular fares because the buses would have to go empty on one side of the trip.