Saudi Arabia’s top religious leader says a stampede that killed 717 pilgrims was beyond human control, official media reported yesterday, the final day of this year’s hajj.
The stampede was the worst disaster in a quarter-century to strike the annual event and drew fierce criticism of the Saudi authorities’ handling of safety, particularly from Iran.
“You are not responsible for what happened,” Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh told Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in a meeting in Mina on Friday, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
Photo: AFP
“As for the things that humans cannot control, you are not blamed for them. Fate and destiny are inevitable,” Sheikh told the prince, who is also minister of the interior.
Mohammed chairs the Saudi hajj committee and has ordered an investigation into Friday’s stampede during a symbolic stoning of the devil ritual by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at Jamarat Bridge in Mina, just outside Mecca.
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 organized.
Yesterday, groups of pilgrims were moving from early morning toward Jamarat Bridge for the last of three stoning days.
The Saudi Ministry of the Interior has said it assigned 100,000 police to secure the hajj and manage crowds.
However, pilgrims blamed the stampede on police road closures and poor management of the flow of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in searing temperatures.
Abdullah al-Sheikh, chairman of the Shura Council, an appointed body which advises the government, said that pilgrims must stick to “the rules and regulations taken by the security personnel... In doing so they protect their lives, their security and facilitate their performing of the rituals.”
Saudi Minister of Health Khaled al-Falih earlier made similar remarks that faulted the worshipers.
In comments carried late on Friday by SPA, the Shura chairman called on citizens and Muslims to ignore “the biased campaigns carried out by the enemies of this pure country, to question the great efforts exerted by the kingdom to serve the holy sites, their construction and expansion, and to serve the visitors and pilgrims.”
India’s government yesterday raised its estimated death toll of its citizens from 14 to 18, while Pakistan raised its estimated death toll from eight to 11.
Meanwhile Iran, whose citizens comprised the largest number of fatalities confirmed so far, announced in a state TV broadcast that among those Iranians still missing are Ghazanfar Roknabadi, a former ambassador to Lebanon, as well as two state TV reporters and a prominent political analyst.
According to the TV report, 134 Iranian pilgrims died and 85 were injured, while 354 Iranian pilgrims remain missing.
Iran has strongly criticized Saudi Arabia over the disaster, blaming the Saudi government for “incompetence” and “mismanagement” of the hajj.
Several African countries confirmed deaths in the stampede, as did India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Netherlands. Moroccan media gave 87 nationals killed.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari urged King Salman “to ensure a comprehensive and thorough exercise that will identify any flaws in hajj organization.”
Buhari said his country had lost a prominent journalist, a professor “and others” in the tragedy.
Additional reporting by AP
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