“Saudi authorities have released photos of 1,090 pilgrims who have died in (the hajj) stampede“, Swaraj wrote on Twitter.
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“The minister for religious affairs used to return home soon after Haj to welcome returning pilgrims but on the directive of the prime minister, Sardar Mohammad Yousaf will stay in Saudi Arabia to personally supervise relief and rescue activities”, the information minister said.
“The Islamic World has a lot of questions”, Khamenei added.
The accusations of mismanagement of the pilgrimage strike at a key pillar of the Saudi royal family’s prestige – King Salman holds the title of the “custodian of the two holy mosques”.
Deputy Director of the Iranian Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Hamid Mohammadi said a special committee was launched to transfer the dead bodies and the injured people to Iran.
Kazeem Ugbodaga The Lagos State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board has said that no casualty was recorded among the pilgrims from the State in the stampede that occurred in Mina, Saudi Arabia.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are chief rivals in the greater Middle East. That conflict is on display in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is bombing Shiite rebels there Iran has backed.
Other Iranian officials have also alleged the total death toll is more than 1,000.
Meanwhile, a Saudi local newspaper, Arab News has reported that Iran has the highest number of dead victims at 136, followed by Morocco with 87.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, addressing a United Nations development summit in New York on Saturday, said he wanted to “emphasise the need for swift attention to the injured as well as investigating the causes of this incident and other similar incidents in this year’s hajj“. In the most recent and deadliest-ever event, almost 2,000 pilgrims were killed in a Thursday crush in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca, when performing the annual Hajj rituals.
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Maj Gen Mansour Al-Turki, the Saudi Interior Ministry’s security spokesman, hinted that the problem may have stemmed from a few pilgrims not following established guidelines, the Saudi Press Agency reported. While concluding he said that he hope Iranian leaders are more sensible and will wait until the enquiry is completed.
