- Pakistan’s DJ Hajj Operations says at least seven Pakistanis have been reported killed in the incident
- Saudi health minister blames undisciplined pilgrims for deadly incident, says tragedy would not have occurred if they ‘had followed instructions’
At least 717 pilgrims were killed on Thursday in a stampede at Mina, outside the Muslim holy city of Makkah, where some two million people are performing Haj.
The crush, in which at least 863 others were injured, took place on Street 204 of the camp city at Mina, a few kilometres east of Makkah, where pilgrims stay for several days during the climax of the Hajj.
It has traditionally been the most dangerous day of Hajj because vast numbers of pilgrims attempt 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 hurling pebbles at three large pillars.
Photographs published on the civil defence Twitter feed showed pilgrims lying on stretchers while emergency workers in high-visibility jackets lifted them into an ambulance.
“Work is underway to separate large groups of people and direct pilgrims to alternative routes,” the Saudi Civil Defence said on its Twitter account.
Pakistan Director General Hajj Operations Abu Akif said there are reports of around seven Pakistani pilgrims among those killed in the stampede.
Meanwhile, Foreign Office said they were collecting information about the Pakistani pilgrims in Saudi Arabia to check whether any of them were among the victims.
PILGRIMS RESPONSIBLE FOR STAMPEDE:
Saudi Arabia’s health minister blamed undisciplined pilgrims for the deadly stampede Thursday during the Haj, saying the tragedy would not have occurred if they “had followed instructions”.
Health Minister Khaled al-Falih was quoted by El-Ekhbariya television as saying “many pilgrims move without respecting the timetables” established by authorities, which was the “principal reason for this type of accident”.
“If the pilgrims had followed instructions, this type of accident could have been avoided.”
He further said that pilgrims were flocking to Jamarat site to throw pebbles at grand Jamarat Aqaba when there was a sudden increase in number of pilgrims heading towards Jamarat facility.
Efforts to improve safety at Jamarat have included enlarging the three pillars and constructing a three-decker bridge around them to increase the area and number of entry and exit points for pilgrims to perform the ritual.
More than 100,000 police and thousands of video cameras are also deployed to allow groups to be dispersed before they reach dangerous levels of density.
“Please pilgrims do not push one another. Please leave from the exit and don’t come back by the same route,” an officer kept repeating through a loudspeaker at Jamarat.
Mina is a large valley about five kilometres from the holy city of Makkah. The valley houses more than 160,000 tents where pilgrims spend the night during the pilgrimage. Mina is where pilgrims carry out a symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing pebbles against three stone walls. The temperature in the valley is approximately 45 degree Celsius.
The stampede took place near Maktib Number 93 where mostly Algerian pilgrims are staying, according to a report on the Radio Pakistan website.
PAKISTAN OFFERS CONDOLENCES:
President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed grief and sorrow over the loss of lives in the tragic incident.
Premier Nawaz Sharif directed Pakistan’s Ambassador in Saudia Arabia to “visit the injured at the hospitals and facilitate the injured and the martyred as much as possible”.
Previously marred by stampedes and fires that killed hundreds, Haj has been largely incident-free for the past decade after safety improvements.
On Monday, a fire forced some 1,500 people from their hotel in Makkah as pilgrims gathered for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, the Saudi civil defence department had said. Four Yemeni pilgrims had sustained minor injuries following the pre-dawn fire in a 15-storey hotel, state news agency SPA quoted the department as saying.
The Hajj has been almost incident-free for the past decade. However, 108 people, including foreign pilgrims, died earlier this month when a construction crane fell on the Grand Mosque.
Earlier on September 12, a massive construction crane crashed into Makkah’s Grand Mosque in stormy weather, killing at least 108 people and injuring scores others, Saudi authorities said, less than a fortnight before the Hajj pilgrimage starts.
