MAKKAH, February 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Saudi Arabia is planning a 533-million-dollar redevelopment of the site where pilgrims flock to stone pillars symbolizing Satan, after a stampede there killed 251 pilgrims on Sunday, February 1, a Saudi newspaper reported Wednesday, February 4.

The project, the first phase of a plan drawn up by the municipal affairs ministry, includes building a four-storey bridge over the area to boost capacity to 160,000 people, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) citing Al-Madinah daily.

One bridge already exists over the 272-metre wide area to try to ease the crush of the pilgrims.

The Saudi daily said the site would have 11 entrances and 12 exits, routes would be built to keep vehicles separate from marching pilgrims and the circular basins around the pillars would be turned into ovals.

A council representing the kingdom's highest religious authority will meet Thursday, February 5, to discuss the tragedy, with some predicting that it may issue a fatwa allowing changes to the stoning ritual to avoid future trouble.

In the hours after Sunday's tragedy, Saudi King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz ordered "overall plans" to be drawn up to develop the holy cities of Makkah and Al-Madinah.

He issued a royal decree covering a 20-year project to be undertaken by a body chaired by Municipal and Rural Affairs Minister Mutaab bin Abdul Aziz.

A total of 251 Muslim pilgrims were trampled to death or suffocated and about 244 injured Sunday, the first of three days of the ritual stoning marking the end of hajj.

The incident occurred although 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.

Chanting "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 the devil.

Satan appeared on the same site to the Prophet Abraham, son Ismael and wife Hagar, who each threw seven stones at the devil.

Shared Blame

But eyewitnesses put the blame squarely on both the pilgrims and the Saudi authorities, reported the Saudi Arab News daily on Wednesday.

They said the pilgrims ignored instructions which had been given to them -- in some cases before they left their home countries -- but blamed the Saudi police for allowing pilgrims to converge on the Jamrat area from all directions.

In addition, in some areas boy scouts instead of adult policemen were used as security.

"It’s true the conduct of some pilgrims was the trigger for the chain of events. But the government allowed boy scouts to man some of the security arrangements," an Indian pilgrim who was trapped in the crush told the English-language paper.

"When the tragedy happened, the security forces arrived on the scene in full force. Why hadn’t they been deployed beforehand when it is well-known that tragic incidents have happened in the last few years?"

He said that the problem was made considerably worse by pilgrims streaming in from all directions.

The trouble began when some pilgrims attempted to exit by the same way they had entered, the daily said.

Tahera Ahsan, an Indian housewife, blamed the pilgrims for the tragedy.

"When we left India on the way to Jeddah, we were given clear instructions on what to do and what not to do. I am sure pilgrims from other countries must also have received similar instructions. What happened at the stoning was the result of a lack of discipline and undue haste in performing the rituals," she told Arab News.

Saudi Hajj Minister Iyad bin Amin Madani had also blamed illegal pilgrims, 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.

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, 35 in 2001 and 118 in 1998.

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 making some of the rituals automated.

'Great Success'

But despite the deadly incident, Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdal Aziz Al-Saud said Wednesday that the hajj season was a "great success," as pilgrims started streaming out of Mina and Makkah, heading home.

"I want to congratulate you on your great achievement," Prince Nayef told the men charged with the security of the hajj, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"All the security, safety and traffic plans were carried out according to the highest standards and those who say otherwise are ungrateful or hate this country."

Nayef said some of the pilgrims who perished Sunday in the stoning ritual were partly to blame.

"Our pilgrim brethren should have been, or we would have hoped that they would be, calm and moved slowly to respect those who fainted or fell to the ground dying and not to trample on them," said Nayef, who also heads the Supreme Hajj Council.

"I myself saw those who jumped over them [the fallen] and those who stood over a [fallen] human being to throw stones."

Pilgrims had started trekking out of Mina and Makkah Tuesday, February 3, concluding their hajj.

They performed a final circumambulation of Islam's holiest shrine, the Ka' bah, a cube-shaped structure Muslims face in prayer.

Every able-bodied adult Muslim who can physically and financially afford the trip must perform hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, once in their lifetime.