On Thursday, a deadly crush killed 717 people as two lines of people converged during the Hajj, causing the annual pilgrimage’s worst accident in 25 years.
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Muslim pilgrims and first responders gather around bodies of people crushed in Mina, Saudi Arabia during the annual hajj pilgrimage.
The Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said that 18 Indian pilgrims have been confirmed dead so far in the Mecca stampede during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
The stampede took place when two large groups of pilgrims collided at a crossroads in Mina, a few miles east of Mecca, on their way to performing the “Stoning of the Devil” ritual at Jamarat, Reuters reported.
Nations around the globe started providing details regarding losses and their missing, including Pakistan, which said no less than 236 of its explorers were unaccounted for on Friday. Iranian protesters carried banners and chanted “Death to Al-Saud family”, referring to the royal family in Riyadh.
Global condolences – and condemnation – flooded into Saudi Arabia on Friday following a Hajj stampede in Mecca a day earlier that killed more than 700 pilgrims.
He said it would be wrong to “point a finger at Saudi Arabia which does its best” to make the Haj possible.
This year’s pilgrimage to Mecca drew more than two million Muslims from around the world. “At Mina, authorities use surveillance cameras and other equipment to curb too many people from converging on site”. “On the contrary, during the Hajj and Umrah I participated in, I came to observe closely the level of sensibility in the organization work conducted there”. “They should not lie and say, “It was because this or that, the weather was hot, it was the pilgrims” faults'”.
Saudi Health Minister Khaled al-Falah suggested on Thursday that the stampede had resulted from pilgrims’ failure to observe instructions, but he didn’t name Iranians.
The paper, citing unnamed witnesses, said waves of Iranian pilgrims had ignored rules related to the stone-throwing ritual by moving in an opposite direction. “They were dehydrated, getting disorientated, they were dying in front of our eyes”, said South African businessman Zaid Bayat, 43.
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The leader of Nigeria’s delegation to hajj, and the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, urged the Saudi government to refrain from pointing accusing fingers at pilgrims for the deaths.
