The tragedy that struck the innocent pilgrims performing Hajj in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, September 22, 2015 was a human tragedy of unparalleled dimension. The news of the calamity spread like wild fire particularly across the Muslim world from where the majority of the pilgrims travelled to the holy land to perform Hajj. The print and electronic media across the world, including Pakistan, fretfully got engaged in providing minute-to-minute report on the tragedy particularly to people whose near and dear ones had gone to perform Hajj.
The stampede took place at Mina, outside the Muslim holy city of Makkah, where some two million people were performing Hajj. The crush in which, according to last reports, at least 1200 people lost their valuable lives and an equally significant number were injured, took place on Street 204 of the camp city at Mina, a few kilometers east of Makkah, where pilgrims stay for several days during the climax of the Hajj. This particular day has traditionally been the most hazardous day of Hajj because inestimable numbers of pilgrims endeavor to perform rituals at the same time in a single location.
Street 204 is one of the two main arteries leading through the camp at Mina to Jamarat, where pilgrims ritually stone the devil by throwing pebbles at three large pillars. Not that stampedes have not taken place on similar occasions in the past. Stampedes did occur on such occasions in the past as well and many people died then. But the stampede that occurred on September 22, 2015 which took the lives of over 1200 pilgrims, including 89 Pakistanis, has broken all previous records.
This extremely grave and agonizing situation calls for adoption of immediate long-term measures to, if not totally eliminate, at least minimize such tragic happenings in the future. One way to achieve this critical objective for the Saudi Government would be to drastically cut down (at least by 50%) the total number of pilgrims visiting the holy land to perform Hajj every year. An additional option would be to impose a ban on Pilgrims who have already performed Hajj once, and give preference to those aspiring pilgrims who are desirous of performing Hajj for the first time. Undoubtedly, adoption of such measures would make things manageable for the Saudi Government and significantly reduce the occurrence of such tragic happenings in the future. Will those at the helm in Government of Saudi Arabia look into the matter seriously to avoid recurrence of a human catastrophe of the magnitude of Mina tragedy of September 22, 2015 in the future?
M FAZAL ELAHI
Islamabad
