Another stampede at Mina in 2004 left 244 pilgrims dead and hundreds injured.
Advertisement
Iran urged Saudi Arabia on Saturday to locate more than 340 of its nationals still missing in the aftermath of the deadly stampede at the annual hajj pilgrimage. The stampede in Mina just outside Mecca in Saudi Arabia is a human tragedy beyond words. He added that “mismanagement is certainly the trigger” of the tragedy. King Salman, whose official title is “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” in Mecca and Medina, also ordered “a revision” of how the hajj is organised. Senegal’s President Macky Sall additionally expressed sympathy for the victims.
“The problem is in the culture of pilgrims, who are not organized or patient”, he said.
Thousands of Iranian worshippers have marched in Tehran after Friday prayers to denounce the “incompetency” of Saudi Arabia in handling the annual hajj pilgrimage.
But Saudi officials have not updated that figure of 717 deaths and 863 injuries in the crush in Mina, a large valley on the outskirts of the holy city of Makkah.
Iran on Saturday vowed to take worldwide legal action against Saudi Arabia’s rulers over the crush of Muslim pilgrims at this year’s hajj, which killed at least 769 people, including 136 Iranians, and has led to an escalation of tensions between the regional archrivals.
Three other Indians pilgrims killed were from Tamil Nadu.
The Philippine government said it was verifying reports that at least one Filipino pilgrim was killed. With the death toll rising, many pilgrims are still unaccounted for in the incident that marked the worst Hajj disaster in 25 years.
These four names are not on the list of the 14 Indonesians announced deceased by the Religious Affairs Ministry.
April 1998 – One hundred and nineteen Muslim pilgrims are crushed to death in Saudi Arabia at the Haj.
“They should not lie and say, “It was because this or that, the weather was hot, it was the pilgrims” faults'”.
In Mina, simply outdoors of Mecca, pilgrims took half in a symbolic casting away of evil on Friday.
“Work is underway to separate large groups of people and direct pilgrims to alternative routes”, the Saudi Civil Defence said on its Twitter account. That followed an accident September 11 in which a storm toppled a crane at the Grand Mosque in Mecca that killed 111 people.
Advertisement
“If Assad has a little bit of love for Syria, if he has a little bit of love for the Syrian people, he has to walk out of this”, Erdogan said.
