Number of Iranians killed at Mina at 131: Official [Hajj Ceremony]

[Blackmoon]

The number of the Iranian pilgrims killed at the recent crush in Saudi Arabia’s Mina has reached 131, an Iranian official says.

Saeed Ohadi, the head of Iran's Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, made the announcement on Thursday night, adding that the number of the fatalities could rise.
He also said that the transfer to Tehran of the bodies as well as those who had sustained injury during the incident will start next week.
The incident occurred in Mina, near Mecca, at 9 am local time (0600 GMT) on Thursday after two large masses of pilgrims fused together.
Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization says the tragic incident claimed the lives of more than 1,300 people, including 131 Iranians. Saudi officials, however, put the death toll at 717.
Saudi Arabia has come under mounting criticism following the catastrophe.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has declared three days of national mourning following the disaster. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has also asked Riyadh to take responsibility for the disaster and fulfill its legal and Islamic obligations in this regard.
Arabic-language daily al-Diyar has said the presence of the convoy of Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, the son of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in the middle of the population prompted a change in the direction of the movement of the pilgrims and the subsequent crush. It said Salman had sought to attend the huge gathering of pilgrims in Mina.

Source : PressTV-‘Number of Iranians killed at Mina at 131’
RIP all those who lost their lives.

 

[Peaceful Civilian]

RIP...... This is massive number.

 

[haman10]

Iranians are all left speechless . R.I.P

there is a very strong possibility the numbers will increase

 

[Oracle 33]

Very tragic news RIP to the dead

 

[Muhammad Jabran]

awful news

 

[Rukarl]

Due to the massive number of the dead i wont make any political comment but very sad to see Iranians die regardless of their faith. RIP.

 

[mohsen]

365 Iranian pilgrims are still missing!

PressTV-‘Death toll from Hajj stampede hits 2,000’

 

[atatwolf]

:/

Death at the Hajj viewed as a blessing for some - CNN.com

 

[Daneshmand]

Number of dead have started to come out and they are expected to go up as more of the missing are found out: بیش از ۳۰۰ زائر ایرانی 'مفقود شده‌اند' - BBC Persian

131 from Iran

236 from Pakistan

87 from Morocco

14 from India

14 from Egypt

Additional 365 Iranians are missing.

 

[Madali]

What annoys me is that Iran seemed to be the only country that was quickly updating their dead. Why don't Muslims countries care about their citizens??? If it was western citizens dying in an accident, governments would put so much attention on it!

 

[Daneshmand]

What annoys me is that Iran seemed to be the only country that was quickly updating their dead. Why don't Muslims countries care about their citizens??? If it was western citizens dying in an accident, governments would put so much attention on it!

Because for most of the rest of the Islamic world, Saud family and their debauched lifestyle is synonymous to Islam and Quran.

Criticizing Saud family is regarded as blasphemy. This kind of mentality then allows for Saud family to continue doing whatever they want without facing any objections.

And as soon as someone like Iran objects, they term Iranians as "kafir" and "sectarian".

Ignorant masses.

 

[Full Moon]

Because for most of the rest of the Islamic world, Saud family and their debauched lifestyle is synonymous to Islam and Quran.

Criticizing Saud family is regarded as blasphemy. This kind of mentality then allows for Saud family to continue doing whatever they want without facing any objections.

And as soon as someone like Iran objects, they term Iranians as "kafir" and "sectarian".

Ignorant masses.

Way too many exaggerations here. Get over this immature behavior. You have exceeded 50 already.

 

[rahi2357]

R.I.P


Some of the reactions :

Mohammed Jafari, an advisor to the Hajj and Umrah Travel tour operator in the UK, said:

The main reason for this accident was that the King and his palace was receiving dignitaries including the minister of defence and members of the Gulf Co-operation Council. For this reason, they closed two of the entrances to where the ('stoning of the devil' ritual) happens and they closed two roads where people were not able to proceed which created two bottlenecks. It is the fault of the Saudi government because any time a prince comes along, they close the roads and don't think about the disaster waiting to happen. Khalid A. Al-Falih blames God. In every disaster, the Saudis say it is God's will. It is not God's will – it is man's incompetence. You have a stream of people going in and if you stop that stream, and the population builds up, eventually there is going to be an accident."

Jafari also accused the Saudi government of making racist statements by suggesting that the stampede was caused by African pilgrims.

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Mehmet Gormez, the head of Presidency of Religious Affairs blamed serious management issues at Mecca, saying "There was serious negligence by authorities in directing the crowd."

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Nigerian government has dismissed remarks by the Saudi health minister blaming pilgrims for "not following instructions". Abdullahi Mukhtar, the Chairman of National Hajj Commission of Nigeria said "it was not fair for anyone to blame Africans participating at the pilgrimage for the fatal incident" and called on the Saudi authority to include Nigeria in a government investigation into the incident

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- Irfan al-Alawi, the executive director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, said that "the disaster was a result of poor management by the government, given the number of past disasters."

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Madawi al-Rasheed, a Saudi-Arabian anthropologist and visiting professor at the London School of Economics, said: "There is no accountability. It’s shocking that almost every year there is some kind of death toll. The renovation and expansion are done under the pretext of creating more space for Muslim pilgrims, but it masks land grabs and vast amounts of money being made by the princes and by other Saudis. Officials in the kingdom had avoided responsibility in part by citing the Islamic doctrine that anyone who dies during the pilgrimage goes to heaven."

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Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi analyst and current director of the Washington D.C. based Institute for Gulf Affairs think tankblamed the Saudi government's “mismanagement” of the Hajj, saying that "the Ministry of Interior's use of soldiers who have no clue or expertise in managing crowds was the real cause of stampedes. This really has to do with the failure of the Saudi government in organizing this Hajj, and they need to get help from around the world."

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Saeed al-Shehabi, a London-based Bahraini political activist in an interview said that "In Saudi Arabia; it is good the Saudis are good at war, are good at financing terrorism and extremism, they are bombing Yemen days and nights, yet they cannot manage this annual festival where Muslims are expected to exercise their worship in peace and in harmony and also to discuss their own lively matters that concern Muslims."

 

[Madali]

Reading the comments at PDF, here are some things I keep hearing,

Q: It has been almost 10 years since the last time! That shows a great safety record!

A: This happening even once is big enough. When Chernobyl happened, no one said, "ah well, it hasn't happened in a long time, so no big deal". However, 9 years isn't as long as it seems. The stoning of the devil in Hajj happens one day a year. So, it's more like 1 out of 9. That's like having 1 out of 9 planes fall, or people dying once for every 9 concerts they go to.

Look at some other odds. 100,000 flights per day, which means 36,500,000 per year. In 2014, there were 6 incidents out of that many numbers. And see how much people get riled up about it and no one says, "ah well, there were 36 million flights, so what if Malaysian airline falls?"

Q: But so many people gather! Accidents can happen!

I don't understand why in 2015, this seems like such a strange thing.
If we look at largest peaceful gatherings, we see huge numbers,
List of largest peaceful gatherings in history - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have so many different gatherings, from religious, to attending funerals, to even going to concerts, such as,
"An estimated 4.2 million people attended a concert given by Rod Stewart in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 1994-12-31"

You also have large protests, which probably has more of an element of unpredictability, example,
February 15, 2003 anti-war protest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And in terms of logistics, this is 2015, crowd control is being handled by major cities all around the world. How else do you think metros are being managed? The Tokyo metro system moves 8 million people per day!
Beijing Subway is even more with 9.2 million passengers per day, with highest amount being 11.5 million in one day!
Closer to home, Iran moves 1.8 million passengers per day.

Q: Okay, fine, but stop politicizing the situation!

Firstly, "politics" isn't just about some guy in a suit trying to get elected. Politics comes from the Greek term politikos, which means "of, for, or relating to citizens". So, in actuality, this is the best time to politicize something, because that's the job of the government! They have the responsibility to work for the citizens.

Q: Yeah, but what will blaming Saudi security achieve? Nothing! Only spread sectarianism!

First of all, this has nothing to do with sect. Sectarianism could be used against Iran if there was a sect-gulf. Iran isn’t attacking Sunnism, nor is it even attacking the ideology of the Saudis. In this particular moment, it is only raising security issues. Security issues is not a Sunni/Shia matter. And Iran’s concern about the dead isn’t that they were only shias. It is a mixture of Sunnis & Shias.

Raising security issues means more pressure on Saudi Arabia, means they have more responsibility to take this seriously. This is the same on a smaller scale. If the bakery in your village keeps selling breads with mold in it, and no one says anything, he will never improve. But if all the villagers raise their voice and complain, there will be more pressure on him to improve his products. Is that a bad thing? In the west, things usually get improved, because of the positive or negative feedback from the public. If Saudi was our strongest ally, then it STILL would have been the responsibility of Iran to complain. And if the government did not have guts to complain about its ally, then it would have been the responsibility of the PUBLIC to complain about our own GOVERNMENT!

Q: Shut up, majoos rafidi ajami farsi!

...

 

[Peaceful Civilian]

Many Pakistani are missing too