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As Pilgrimage Comes To An End, Saudi Releases Names Of Victims
RIYADH, March 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Buses and cars left the holy city on Thursday as nearly 2 million Muslims ended a pilgrimage marred by the deaths of 35 pilgrims who were crushed or trampled during this year's rituals, reports CNN.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims were still crowding the Grand Mosque in Mecca, where they performed a "farewell circling" of the Kaaba, the cubic stone structure Muslims face during their five daily prayers.
In prayers before leaving Mecca, pilgrims asked God to accept their pilgrimage.
Many pilgrims had yet to travel to the city of Medina, 275 miles to the north, to visit Islam's second holiest shrine, the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad, while others headed home.
Hundreds of pilgrims left Thursday through the hajj terminal at King Abdul Aziz Airport in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. Each pilgrim was given a Qur'an, Islam's holy book, as a gift from Saudi King Fahd as they departed, the Washington Post reports.
Meanwhile, the Saudi health ministry on Thursday released the identities of 18 of the Muslim pilgrims killed in the stampede during the first day of the "stoning the Satan" ritual in Mina.
The official Saudi Press Agency said the 18 bodies had been identified as being - four Turks, three Sri Lankans, two Egyptians, two Indians, two Indonesians, one Bangladeshi, two Pakistanis, one Palestinian and one Sudanese.
The ministry said bodies of 17 other victims have yet to be identified.
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz told Okaz newspaper Wednesday that the number of pilgrims killed in the incident was "around 40", while original estimates put the figure at 35.
The English-language Saudi Gazette on Wednesday numbered seven Pakistanis, five Turks, four Indonesians, four Egyptians, two Indians and an Ethiopian woman among the dead.
Egyptian Health Ministry Secretary General Mahmud Abu El-Nasr said four Egyptians had been killed in the stampede and another 106 were injured.
The crush occurred when thousands of pilgrims stampeded toward one of the three giant pillars representing the devil during the "Stoning of Satan" ritual on Monday, the third such tragedy in less than a decade.
Out of a total of 179 pilgrims from 35 countries injured in the stampede, 25 were still in hospital with fractures and bruising, papers reported.
A record 1.5 million pilgrims poured into Saudi Arabia this year, joining around 500,000 Muslim pilgrims who live in the kingdom, for the hajj.
Every able-bodied Muslim with the financial means is required to make the hajj at least once in a lifetime.
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