A senior Saudi religious leader on Friday denounced “lies” being spread about the kingdom after more than 1,350 people died in tragedies that struck this year’s pilgrimage.
In his first major remarks touching on the September 24 Haj stampede, Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Sudais urged people to remember the efforts Saudi Arabia has made to take care of Muslim pilgrims.
“The efforts of the kingdom will not be undermined by the talk of the slanderers that only know to spread lies,” Sudais said during weekly prayers at the Grand Mosque.
The mosque was the scene of a construction crane collapse on September 11 which killed at least 108 people, many of them foreign pilgrims, just before Haj.
Less than two weeks later, the stampede occurred during a Haj stoning ritual at Mina, near Makkah.
Data from 29 countries, mostly from official sources, give a total of 1,358 dead in the stampede, far in excess of the Saudi figure of 769 killed.
“It is not the right of anyone or any entity to use these events to blame or spread rumours against the great efforts exerted by the kingdom,” Sudais said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
