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Saudi Arabian authorities have confiscated 784 suitcases belonging to hajj pilgrims leaving the kingdom because they were carrying bottles of holy water.

M. Raefi, the head of the Religious Affairs Office in Jember, East Java, said on Monday that about 900 suitcases belonging to pilgrims from the district had initially been seized, but the rest had later been released.

He added that all the bags had been held because they contained various amounts of holy water from the Zamzam well, which springs up from inside Mecca’s Al-haram Mosque, the holiest site in Islam.

“The fact is the pilgrims know they shouldn’t be bringing back the water with them in their suitcases, but most of them attempt it anyway,” he said.

Raefi claimed that under international aviation laws, passengers were forbidden to carry large amounts of fluids on flights, either in checked luggage or carry-on bags.

He said the seized bags would be returned to travellers by the authorities at Jeddah’s King Abdul Aziz International Airport once all the bottles of water had been removed.

“Hopefully this will serve as a lesson to future pilgrims not to attempt the same thing when they return from Saudi Arabia,” he said.

He added that he had also received reports of similar seizures of luggage belonging to pilgrims from Jakarta and other areas across the country.

The issue of smuggled holy water notwithstanding, the government said this year’s hajj was better-organized than last year. A record 211,000 Indonesians undertook the government-subsidized package.

However, legislators have criticized the government for issuing a written warning to a doctor who complained about the poor quality of the food provided to the hajj pilgrims while in the kingdom.

Anshori Siregar, a member of House of Representatives Commission IX, which oversees health, said the Ministry of Health acted inappropriately.

“This was an emergency, a case in which hajj pilgrims fell victim [to poor quality food],” he said on Monday at a hearing with Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih.

Surya Chandra Suryapati, another commission member, said it was unreasonable to blame the doctor for doing his job.

“We sent the sanitation and surveillance team there to find out why so many pilgrims were suffering from diarrhea,” he said. “By blaming the doctor for reporting what he did, the government is blaming the House.”

Endang said she was not familiar with the case and would study it further before commenting.