A Report About Mina Incident By An Iraqi Journalist
MEP: Today is Eid al-Adha in Persian date 2 Mehr 1394, as usual pilgrims move from Mashar Al-Haram towards Mina and then move towards the Jamarat, stoning of the devil.
Although there were fewer pilgrims this year than previous years, the crowd was quite abnormal. After 10 times attending Hajj, I felt unusual conditions. Heading Jamarat we have to stop several times because of overcrowding. The intense heat worsens the situation. I immediately put the Haji members of my group in a line and moved forward by splitting the crowd. In fact we got out of the fray.
When we arrived the pebbles at Akaba( Great Satan), Condition wasn’t much more difficult than previous years. This means that the congestion of the road was something unusual and inconsistent compared to Jamarat.
In the street mainly Africans, Indians and Pakistanis was moving towards the Jamarat, It was perceptible an unusual situation. Pilgrims got sick and faint because of overcrowd, traffic, Lack of drinking water and closed Exits Street towards the Jamarat. These hard conditions lead to slaughter of pilgrims.
Saudi Arabia claims that they were equipped Air Force helicopter to serve pilgrims. There was no monitoring of the most important and crowded parts of Hajj. If overcrowding was observed by aerial surveillance, they could cut the back of crowd and lead them to the surrounding streets to the Egyptian and African convoys.
All police forces were young and inexperienced in dealing with the crisis. They couldn’t keep up with the crowd.
It was obvious that Saudi forces were unprepared. It takes so long to transfer the bodies. Many of the injured were alive among the dead and experienced violent death.
In the evening, people who have gone to identify bodies in different areas narrated that injured were breathing and blood vomiting.
The incident happened at 8:45 o’clock in the morning, but they took the pulse of the dead and injured at 4 pm.
Saudi has history of closing such cases including the massacre of 1368 pilgrims in the tunnel in Muaysm, the year after that fire killed pilgrims in tent camp, pilgrims gas poisoning, rape of pilgrims during the Hajj and lack of medical attention at these events.
The general atmosphere in Mecca is stressful and fearsome. There is a possibility of happening subsequent events in Sacred Mosque. People run away when they hear little noises and expect to be killed or crushed.
In my opinion, Saudi Arabia neglected in Hajj performance because most of Saudi forces have been engaged in war with Yemen. Blaming the combination of hot weather and congestion in the busiest part of hajj is violating the sanctity of the holy city of Mecca and Mina and only a betrayal to the divine decree of destiny.
In author’s opinion these documents shows Saudi government weakness in Hajj management and new measures should be considered.
