New report puts Mina stampede death toll at 1,260
DUBAI: A crush and stampede last month outside of Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Makkah killed at least 1,264 people during the annual Haj pilgrimage to the kingdom, an Associated Press count showed Thursday. The AP count of dead from the disaster - the worst tragedy to strike the Haj in a quarter-century - is based on tolls offered by 17 countries through their officials or state media broadcasts, saying specifically the deceased were killed September 24 in Mina, near Makkah. Saudi officials have said their official figure of 769 killed and 934 injured in the disaster remains accurate, though an investigation into its causes is ongoing. Health authorities in the kingdom previously said civil defence officials would be offering any new casualty figures, though no new toll has been released by authorities since September 26. Authorities have said the disaster in Mina happened as two waves of pilgrims converged on a narrow road, causing hundreds of people to suffocate or be trampled to death. Iran has blamed the disaster on the Saudi kingdom’s “mismanagement.” It also accused Riyadh of a cover-up, saying the real death toll exceeds 4,700, without providing evidence to support its claim. Diplomats in Indonesia, Pakistan and India have said Saudi officials gave them some 1,100 photographs of dead from the Mina disaster.
Saudi officials say those photographs include pilgrims who died of natural causes at the Haj as well. Recent Indian paperwork from the disaster also refers to at least “1,957” photographs of the dead in Saudi Arabia, though its consular officials say some bodies were photographed multiple times. The AP count of the dead includes totals from 17 of the over 180 countries that sent pilgrims to this year’s Haj. Iran said it had 465 pilgrims killed, while Egypt had 148 and Indonesia 120.
Others include Pakistan with 89; India 81; Mali 70; Nigeria 64; Bangladesh 63; Cameroon 42; Ethiopia 31; Morocco 27; Algeria 25; Ghana 12; Chad 11; Kenya eight; Senegal five and Turkey with three. Hundreds of pilgrims still remain missing, according to these countries. In previous years, the Haj has drawn more than three million pilgrims without any major incidents and Saudi Arabia has spent billions to prepare for the pilgrimage in recent years. Able-bodied Muslims are required to perform the five-day pilgrimage once in their lifetime, and each year poses a massive logistical challenge for the kingdom.
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