DUSHANBE, September 25, 2015, Asia-Plus – The Committee on Religious Affairs under the Government of Tajikistan (CRA) there are no Tajik nationals among more than 700 pilgrims killed on September 24 in a crush outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi authorities said, in the worst disaster to strike the annual Hajj pilgrimage for 25 years.
International media outlets report the at least 717 people died in a stampede near the holy city of Mecca.
Another 863 people were injured in the incident at Mina, which occurred as two million pilgrims were taking part in the Hajj”s last major rite.
According
BBC News
, Saudi Arabia”s King Salman has ordered a safety review for the Hajj pilgrimage after the accident.
Thursday”s disaster was reportedly the worst to occur at the pilgrimage since July 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims suffocated in a tunnel near Mecca. Both incidents occurred on Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice), Islam”s most important feast and the day of the stoning ritual.
It is the second disaster to strike Mecca in two weeks, after a crane collapsed at the Grand Mosque, killing 109 people.
Reuters
reports that the Hajj, the world”s largest annual gathering of people, has been the scene of numerous deadly stampedes, fires and riots in the past, but their frequency has been greatly reduced in recent years as the Saudi government spent billions of dollars upgrading and expanding Hajj infrastructure and crowd control technology.
Safety during Hajj is a politically sensitive issue for the kingdom”s ruling Al Saud dynasty, which presents itself internationally as the guardian of orthodox Islam and custodian of its holiest places in Mecca and Medina.
Iran”s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the Saudi government should accept responsibility for the crush, in which more than 100 Iranian nationals were reported to have died,
Reuters
reports.
Said Ohadi, the head of Iran”s hajj organization, said on Iranian television that two paths had been closed in Mina and that the closures had caused that tragic accident. According to him, the closures had left only three routes to the area where the symbolic stoning takes place.
