Sagar Biswas :
The confusion over the death figure of Bangladeshi Hajis in the catastrophic incident of stampede in Mina has further deepened as Religious Affairs Ministry and Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh [HAAB] issued new contradictory statements.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs on Monday said at least 22 Bangladeshi nationals have so far been killed in Mina stampede that claimed lives of over 769 hajis and injured around 934 others.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs [MoFA] yesterday remained almost mum on the issue. On Sunday, it issued a statement identifying three deceased in Mina tragedy, but hours later MoFA in another statement said that one of the bodies primarily identified as Aminur Rahman from Savar, was not actually the body of him [Aminur Rahman].
“We have identified 22 Bangladeshi hajis after scrutinizing photos of the deceased released by the Saudi Arabian government,” Religious Affairs Secretary Chowdhury Mohammad Babul Hassan said on Monday. He also said that 98 Bangladeshi hajis are still missing after the Mina tragedy.
Earlier in the morning, the Religious Affairs Ministry confirmed death of 11 hajis. Later, Joint Secretary of the Ministry Md Borhan Uddin said the bodies of 22 hajis have been identified and 98 hajis are still missing.
“Separate teams are now working in the Saudi Arabia to detect Bangladeshi hajis and provide medical service to the injured persons. It has become difficult to identify Bangladeshi nationals as their faces are alike Indians,” he said.
On the other hand, HAAB President Ibrahim Bahar yesterday said that so far, 18 Bangladeshis have been identified among those killed in the Mina stampede. “About 90 others are still missing. We think that the Bangladeshi death toll might rise,” he said.
Hajj Officer of Bangladesh Embassy in Saudi Arabia Mohammad Asaduzzaman said: “We had prepared a list of deceased hajis getting information from different sources, including family members and hotline conversations. Of them, we have traced 30, but the whereabouts of 98 are still not known.”
According to sources, the Saudi authorities were not allowing anyone into the hospitals where the casualty victims were being kept, which barred to know the details of the victims.
This year about 1,06,000 pilgrims went to Saudi Arabia from Bangladesh to perform hajj. The Bangladesh government sent a team of 350 officials, including physicians and nurses, to look after the hajis, officials said.
Meanwhile, most of the returnees have blamed the Saudi government for total mismanagement behind the stampede. “We went to Mina where the temperature was over 43 degrees celsius.
“There was huge demand of drinking water among the hajis. The Saudi authorities sprayed water on the pilgrims to cool down the heat. But it turned the streets slippery. And so, when the hajis fell down they failed to stand up on the slippery ground,” said a haji Abu Bakkar, who returned from Makkah boarding a Saudi Airlines flight yesterday.
The stampede of Thursday is the second worst in a number of tragedies to strike the pilgrimage, surpassed only by that of July 2, 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims, mainly from Asia, died during a stampede after failure of a ventilation system in a tunnel at Mina.
Besides, the Mina incident was also the second event with fatalities at Makkah in less than two weeks. Earlier, on September 11, a crane collapsed, killing 111 people and injuring 394.
The confusion over the death figure of Bangladeshi Hajis in the catastrophic incident of stampede in Mina has further deepened as Religious Affairs Ministry and Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh [HAAB] issued new contradictory statements.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs on Monday said at least 22 Bangladeshi nationals have so far been killed in Mina stampede that claimed lives of over 769 hajis and injured around 934 others.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs [MoFA] yesterday remained almost mum on the issue. On Sunday, it issued a statement identifying three deceased in Mina tragedy, but hours later MoFA in another statement said that one of the bodies primarily identified as Aminur Rahman from Savar, was not actually the body of him [Aminur Rahman].
“We have identified 22 Bangladeshi hajis after scrutinizing photos of the deceased released by the Saudi Arabian government,” Religious Affairs Secretary Chowdhury Mohammad Babul Hassan said on Monday. He also said that 98 Bangladeshi hajis are still missing after the Mina tragedy.
Earlier in the morning, the Religious Affairs Ministry confirmed death of 11 hajis. Later, Joint Secretary of the Ministry Md Borhan Uddin said the bodies of 22 hajis have been identified and 98 hajis are still missing.
“Separate teams are now working in the Saudi Arabia to detect Bangladeshi hajis and provide medical service to the injured persons. It has become difficult to identify Bangladeshi nationals as their faces are alike Indians,” he said.
On the other hand, HAAB President Ibrahim Bahar yesterday said that so far, 18 Bangladeshis have been identified among those killed in the Mina stampede. “About 90 others are still missing. We think that the Bangladeshi death toll might rise,” he said.
Hajj Officer of Bangladesh Embassy in Saudi Arabia Mohammad Asaduzzaman said: “We had prepared a list of deceased hajis getting information from different sources, including family members and hotline conversations. Of them, we have traced 30, but the whereabouts of 98 are still not known.”
According to sources, the Saudi authorities were not allowing anyone into the hospitals where the casualty victims were being kept, which barred to know the details of the victims.
This year about 1,06,000 pilgrims went to Saudi Arabia from Bangladesh to perform hajj. The Bangladesh government sent a team of 350 officials, including physicians and nurses, to look after the hajis, officials said.
Meanwhile, most of the returnees have blamed the Saudi government for total mismanagement behind the stampede. “We went to Mina where the temperature was over 43 degrees celsius.
“There was huge demand of drinking water among the hajis. The Saudi authorities sprayed water on the pilgrims to cool down the heat. But it turned the streets slippery. And so, when the hajis fell down they failed to stand up on the slippery ground,” said a haji Abu Bakkar, who returned from Makkah boarding a Saudi Airlines flight yesterday.
The stampede of Thursday is the second worst in a number of tragedies to strike the pilgrimage, surpassed only by that of July 2, 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims, mainly from Asia, died during a stampede after failure of a ventilation system in a tunnel at Mina.
Besides, the Mina incident was also the second event with fatalities at Makkah in less than two weeks. Earlier, on September 11, a crane collapsed, killing 111 people and injuring 394.
