THE tragic death of hundreds of pilgrims in an unprecedented stampede at Mina in the outskirt of Mecca during the stoning of the satan has shocked the Muslim world with deep sorrows and grief. It happened after another such tragic accidents at the Masjid-ul-Haraam immediately before commencing of the hajj killing 109 pilgrims from a crane fall with as many others injured. The accident at Mina this time left 769 pilgrims dead and over 934 wounded. Media reports have so far confirmed deaths of 18 Bangladeshi pilgrims with 90 more missing and over 50 receiving treatment at hospitals.The disasters have befallen on the pilgrims one after another. The victims belong to all nationalities from all corners of the world and we join the Muslim Ummah to condole the deaths of the pilgrims asking for Allah’s mercy on all of us to live as faithful and die as faithful in all circumstances. It is really difficult to manage two million pilgrims at a time and the task was made further difficult this time by extreme heat and exhaustion under the scorching sun. Pilgrims’ inexperience, confusion and breaking of discipline by many in haste to complete the ritual made the crowd to swallow ending in the tragic stampede. It is true that the Saudi government has spent billions of dollars in the past years to expand and improve the infrastructure to create more space for the pilgrims. It has also engaged enough manpower to handle the pilgrims. Despite all the arrangements of manpower and improvement of facilities what happened cannot be called an accident. Surely, there was laxity in management. Such a huge crowd had to be rigidly organized for their safety. In modern days with modern technology things could not go so mismanaged.In all fairness, it must be said that the Saudi government should have taken the matter much more seriously. Loss of lives was to be avoided and the pilgrims must have been compelled to perform hajj showing full respect to the teachings of Islam about peace and patience. Salvation is unthinkable when causing death to others is no consideration. There was the need of inspiring right motivation among the pilgrims by the organizers of hajj.Iran has strongly criticised Saudi Arabia for mishandling the annual pilgrimage and has threatened to press the case against Saudi rulers in international courts. The incident has inflamed sectarian tensions between regional rivals — Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiate Iran. Some other countries including Turkey blamed mismanagement as the cause of the stampede.We hope that the Saudi government would undertake a thorough investigation into the cause of the stampede and make sure that such painful loss of lives does not happen again. It is certainly not a matter for politicizing but it is certainly a human matter to be taken seriously.
