Saudis preparing six graveyards in Makkah to bury stampede victims

Authorities in the Saudi Arabian city of Makkah are preparing six graveyards to bury pilgrims who died in a stampede during this year’s Hajj, reports Arab News.

Citing the media director of the Makkah Secretariat, the newspaper said that graves across six cemeteries were being prepared to ‘accommodate some of the stampede victims’.
 
The burial procedure will be finalised on getting approval from the victims’ families, it said, adding that bodies will be sent to relatives wishing to bury them in their homelands.
 
 Hundreds of pilgrims from different countries died on Thursday in a stampede near Mina, outside Makkah, when they were heading for the ritual to stone the Jamarat pillars - a symbolic rejection of ‘the devil’. 
 
Official figures say 769 people were killed in the stampede. Bangladesh officials confirmed on Tuesday that 26 Bangladeshi pilgrims were among the victims.