Saudi Arabia silent over country-wise stampede death figures a day after disaster

There is no official count of Bangladeshi victims among the stampede casualties in Saudi Arabia during the Hajj, even a day after the tragedy.

Ashik Hossainbdnews24.com
Published : 25 Sept 2015, 05:42 PM
Updated : 25 Sept 2015, 06:32 PM

After the incident on Thursday, Saudi Arabia said 717 were killed and 863 were injured.

The Saudi authorities have not changed the toll though 24 hours have passed after the last update.

The stampede took place when the pilgrims were going to perform the ‘stone the devil’ ritual in Mina at around noon (BdST).

Families claimed eight Bangladeshis were killed and several injured in the incident. 

The government is yet to confirm the figures.
 
“We’ve heard that the families got news of death,” religious affairs ministry’s Joint Secretary Jahangir Alam, who is supervising Bangladeshi Hajj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, told bdnews24.com on Friday.
 
“But the Saudi government has not published the number of victims based on their nationalities yet,”

“There are complaints of around 200 Bangladeshis going missing in the past two days. But many of them went missing from Muzdalifah, not Mina,” he added.

“Such thing happened before; someone went missing but was found afterwards. So it cannot be said for sure how many [Bangladeshis] are among the victims,” he added.

Bangladesh Ambassador in Saudi Arabia Golam Moshi told bdnews24.com Saudi Arabia might publish details of the victims on Friday night (local time).

“Which means deep in the night or Saturday morning in Bangladesh,” he said.

Arab News, published in Saudi Arabia, in a report said Iran officially announced 131 of its nationals were among the victims, Morocco 87, India 14, Egypt eight, Pakistan seven, Turkey four, and three of each Algeria, Kenya, and Indonesia.