SAUDI ARABIA:Stunned pilgrims continued to search for missing loved ones yesterday following the stampede on Thursday which killed 362 Muslims and injured more than 300 during completion of the rites of the annual hajj pilgrimage.
Family members and friends attempted to identify photographs of the dead posted on a wall and visited the morgue at Mina, believed by Muslims to be the site of Abraham's sacrifice of a sheep rather than his son.
The fatalities included 100 Egyptians, 30 Pakistanis and 26 Indians.
Saudi crown prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz observed that the stoning ceremony, during which the fatalities occurred, had taken place on the two previous days without problems. He and other official spokesmen blamed the stampede on unruly pilgrims who had undertaken the hajj under unlicensed operators rather than approved guides. Many of these pilgrims were said to have been sitting with their luggage in the area where the faithful gather just before the midday prayer to stone three pillars, thereby supposedly casting out evil.
The stoning ceremony on the last day of the hajj is particularly risky because most pilgrims attempt to perform the ritual at the auspicious noon hour and then depart for the grand mosque in Mecca to complete the pilgrimage rites.
Some witnesses claimed that police sparked a panic by blocking the entrance to the bridge from which the pilgrims stone the pillars. The police then did nothing to alleviate the crush which developed. Fleeing pilgrims linked arms and pushed through the crowd, trampling those who fell. Some testified that squatters had set up tents on the ramp leading to the bridge, restricting access.
Prince Sultan said that those with baggage should have been excluded.
Fatal incidents are caused by the largely uncontrolled mass of people. While the Saudis limit each country to one hajji per thousand of population, they do not restrict hundreds of thousands from the kingdom and from the gulf, many of whom go every year, although able-bodied Muslims are required to make the hajj only once in a lifetime. Consequently, the number of pilgrims has grown from 1.25 million 30 years ago to 2.5 million.
Instead of imposing an overall ceiling, the Saudis have expedited travel between Mecca, Mina and the plain of Arafat and have attempted to improve physical access to ritual sites.
The means the Saudis have employed are flyovers, tunnels and bridges which, in themselves, are dangerous, because they funnel people into walled places. The Saudis have not banned unlicensed guides or compelled licensed operators to provide their charges with identification tags.
Most of the pushing and shoving is done by unworldly pilgrims terrified of being separated from their groups.
This year's toll is the highest to have occurred during the stoning ritual. In 2004, 251 pilgrims died, 35 were crushed in 2001, 180 in 1998 and 270 in 1994.
The deadliest hajj was in 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims suffocated in a tunnel in Mina.
