A
total of 244 Muslim pilgrims were trampled to death and a similar
number injured during the Stoning of Satan ritual, which closes the
rituals for the nearly two million Muslim pilgrims who flocked to
Mina, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
dead included 54 Indonesians, 36 Pakistanis, 13 Egyptians, 11 Turks,
11 Indians, 10 Algerians, 10 Bangladeshis, eight Sudanese, seven
Moroccans, five Chinese, four Yemenis, three Sri Lankans, two Afghans,
two Somalis, two Syrians, two Saudis, one Burmese, one Omani, one
Tunisian, one Nigerian, one Chadian and one Cameroonian.
Another
58 people who died had not been identified, according to the list
carried by the official Saudi press agency (WAS), although three were
said to be from southeast Asia.
The
huge crush started around 9:00 am (0600 GMT) as large numbers of
white-robed pilgrims surged toward the Jamarat Bridge to lob stones at
the pillars representing the devil. The incident lasted for 27
minutes.
"We
believe that most of the dead are from among illegal pilgrims,"
Madani said, referring to those who arrived earlier in the year to
perform the Umrah (minor pilgrimage) and stayed illegally, as well as
local residents who never registered for the hajj.
He
said 2,000 national guard members were moved to the area following the
stampede to reinforce 10,000 police already on site, while helicopters
also hovered overhead.
Despite
the stampede, the ritual continued for two and a half hours.
"What
happened this morning did not stop the accomplishing of the hajj
rituals. The pilgrims continued to rush in," Waleed Faydullah, a
32-year-old Egyptian, told AFP.
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Pilgrims
aim their pebbles at stone pillars representing Satan
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The
incident occurred despite that the
time for throwing Jamrat Al-`Aqabah on the day of `Eid,
for those who are able to do it, is from sunrise, and for those who
are weak and unable to cope with the crowding from the end of the
night.
Yelling
"Allahu Akbar", pilgrims hurl seven small stones from behind
a fence or from an overhead bridge every day for three days at each of
the three 18-metre (58-foot) high concrete pillars that symbolize
Satan.
The
pillars stand only 155 meters (yards) apart and were mobbed as the
pilgrims tried to get close despite beefed-up security measures.
Satan
appeared on the same site to the Prophet Abraham, son Ismael and wife
Hagar, who each threw seven stones at the devil.
The
first two days of the pilgrimage passed without incident under tight
security -- although authorities said they arrested in Riyadh on
Thursday, January 29, seven suspected members of a "terror
group" planning an attack.
There
have been many deadly stampedes in the past. Last year, 14 pilgrims,
including six women, were killed in a stampede during the first day of
the stoning ritual and 35 in 2001, while the 1998 hajj saw 118 killed
and more than 180 hurt at Mina.
The
worst toll of the pilgrimage was in July 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims
were trampled or asphyxiated to death in a stampede in a tunnel, also
in Mina.
An
Egyptian scholar put forward last month a couple of creative
ideas to alleviate the too much crowding in hajj season,
suggesting to make some of the rituals automated
The
hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam along with faith, prayer,
charity and the annual Ramadan fast, climaxed on Saturday on the
nearby plain of Arafat where pilgrims prayed for forgiveness, after
which they spent the night in the town of Muzdalifa.
The
pilgrims had spent Friday, January 30, in prayer
and meditation in Mina, some seven kilometers (4.5 miles) away
from Makkah.
