NEW DELHI: At least fourteen Indians were among 717 people killed and over 860 others injured in a stampede on Thursday when Haj pilgrims jostled their way to perform symbolic stoning of the devil in Mina at the holy Mecca, marking the culmination of the annual pilgrimage.
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“Our staff is engaged in identifying the bodies at the mortuary. We are verifying the information about injuries to Indian pilgrims,” Haj Committee of India CEO Ataur Rahman said . Around 1 lakh Indians have travelled to Mecca this year through the Haj committee while 36,000 have gone through private tour operators.
At least 13 Indians were injured among more than 800 being treated for wounds in Saudi hospitals, reported news agencies until late on Thursday.
Bibi Jan, 60, from Ranga Reddy district near Hyderabad died in the crush, while the second death was of Malappuram native Abdurahman, 51, in Kerala.
Initial reports said two more Malayalis died in Mina on Thursday. Sources said Kaniyankandy Aboobacker Haji from Thalassery and Kochikkaran Vadakeveettil Mohammed, 66, of Kodungallur, both of whom were adjacent to the stampede area, died following cardiac arrest on learning of the incident.
It was not clear until the filing of this report whether the two persons from Kerala were being counted as stampede deaths.
Abdurahman had been staying with his family in Riyadh for several years and he went to Mecca for Haj two days ago along with his wife, Suleikha, who was injured. She has been admitted to a hospital in Mina.
The man from Tamil Nadu who has died during Haj is Shamsuddin, 69, from Nagapatnam, Tamil Nadu. Again, it wasn’t clear whether he died in the stampede or due to illness as he was said to be ailing, sources said.
Bibi Jan’s journey to Haj was made possible after her three sons pooled money to fund her pilgrimage over, but she was killed in the massive stampede at the Jamarat Bridge in Mina. She was accompanied by her 69-year-old husband Abdul Mazeed, who runs poultry feed business in Hyderabad.
Recalling the final moments, shocked family members described how Jan was desperately clinging on to Mazeed’s hand when the stampede broke. As a sea of people fell one after the other, Mazeed could not hold on to her much longer, despite trying to pull her away from harm’s way.
“I tried hard, but our hands were sweating and she slipped and fell and many men and women fell upon her. I shouted and cried for help, but when it was all over, I lost her forever,” a sobbing Mazeed told Haj committee officials over telephone.
Bibi Jan’s body will not be brought to the city. Instead, she is likely to be buried in Mecca, family members said.
Control rooms have been set up to provide information on the Hajis from Telangana and AP, but sources in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) told TOI that since the death toll in the stampede is huge, the identification of the bodies will take some time.
In all, over 5,000 people from Telangana and 2,200 from Andhra Pradesh have gone for Haj this year. “The situation will be clearer by Friday. We are hopeful that most Hajis from the two states are safe,” said an AP government official.
