“We ask [that the Saudi government] immediately issue a list of the names of victims who have had their fingerprints scanned, especially those from Indonesia,” he said, underlining that he was confident that Saudi officials had kept such records.
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Over 700 people were killed in the September 24 stampede near Makkah during the Haj.
Scores of Indians and people from other nationalities are missing since the stampede at the annual Hajjj near the holy city of Mecca on September 24. He said seven Pakistani pilgrims are under treatment in different Saudi hospitals. It could have lessened the agony which relations of victims were subjected to if authorities had promptly taken advantage of modern technology by posting portrait photographs of dead pilgrims on the internet.
“Saudi Arabia should engage in special cooperation in determining the main culprit of the Mina incident“, Qazi-Askar stated, adding that the guilty must be dealt with “decisively”. According to him, many pilgrims move without respecting the time table prepared for observing the Hajj rites.
Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran has repatriated 218 bodies of the 464 people it declared dead in the stampede, while accusing Riyadh of incompetence in its handling of hajj safety.
Eyewitness reports from Mina suggest that the catastrophe wasn’t an incident but a controlled crime. The committee should not only recommend measures particularly crowd-control techniques that will avert a re-occurrence but should also be thorough in its assignment.
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They told reporters in Dar es Salaam at the week end that Tanzanian government ought to join the team made of countries with high toll of the fallen to probe into the mystery behind the worst Hajj horror in the past 25 years in what appeared to be putting the blames on Saudi authorities.
