Hajis head home-ward, dead to be buried in Mecca

DUBAI, April 12: Indian pilgrims started returning home from Saudi Arabia today at the end of this year's Haj, an Indian official said. Zikr...

DUBAI, April 12: Indian pilgrims started returning home from Saudi Arabia today at the end of this year’s Haj, an Indian official said. Zikrur rahman, Consul (Haj) at the Consulate-General of India in Jeddah, told UNI that the first return flight, carrying 480 people, left for Delhi late Sunday evening.

As many as 97,000 Indians travelled to Saudi Arabia for this year’s Haj, about two-thirds of them through the Central Haj Committee. The special flights to carry them back to India will continue till mid-May.

Meanwhile, ten of the 24 Indians killed in Thursday’s stampede near Mina on the last day of the Haj have been buried in Mecca, he said.

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Rahman represented the consulate at the funerals of these Indians. He said all other Indians who died in the tragedy would also be buried in the holy city at the request of their families.

“We have not received any requests for bringing back the dead bodies to India,” he said.

Rahman said Indian officials were also trying to verify if any of the victimsunidentified so far were Indians.

“There are about twelve bodies which are yet to be identified. They appear to be from the Indian sub-continent but we have to find out if any of them were Indians,” he said.

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The task of identifying them has been made difficult by the fact that they had lost the metal wrist bands worn by them for purposes of identification.Rahman said Indian medical teams were regularly visiting hospitals to meet the twelve Indians admitted for injuries suffered in the stampede.

Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi and Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who were in Dubai today, conveyed their condolences to the families of the victims. Saudi authorities said the stampede, which occurred during the ritual of “stoning the devil”, claimed at least 118 lives.

But media reports from Mecca, quoting Saudi doctors, said 180 people had died and more than 250 injured in the incident.

Apart from the Indians, the victims also included Pakistanis, Turks,Algerians, Saudis, Moroccans, Bangladeshis, Indonesians, Egyptians and a Kuwaiti.