Security boosted on final day of hajj

Saudi Arabia deployed large numbers of special forces Saturday as pilgrims performed the final rituals of a hajj marred by double tragedy, with the toll from a stampede rising to 769.

Health Minister Khaled al-Falih announced the new figure, an increase from the previous toll of 717.

The number of injured people rose to 934 from 863 recorded just after the deadliest incident in a quarter-century to strike the annual Muslim pilgrimage.

Dozens of "special emergency force" personnel were seen on one level of the Jamarat Bridge, a five-story structure in Mina where pilgrims ritually stone the devil, and on which hundreds of thousands were converging when a deadly stampede occurred nearby on Thursday.

Many more special forces patrolled the network of roads leading to the structure, which resembles a parking garage.

The tightened measures came after the stampede. The interior ministry has said it had assigned 100,000 police to secure the hajj and manage crowds.

But pilgrims blamed the stampede on police road closures and poor management.

Criticism has also been particularly strident from Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran, which raised to 136 Saturday the number of its people who died.

"It is not only incompetence, but a crime," Iran's attorney general Ebrahim Raeisi said.

Culture Minister Ali Janati is to head a delegation to Saudi Arabia to follow up on the cases of 344 Iranians whom Tehran says are missing.

The disaster was the second deadly accident to hit worshippers this month. A massive construction crane collapse on the Grand Mosque in the nearby holy city of Mecca killed 109 people days before the hajj.

Undeterred Saturday, pilgrims in Mina still flooded the area to perform the stoning for a third time, on the last day of the hajj which this year drew about two million people.

Most pilgrims begin leaving on Saturday, returning to Mecca where they circumambulate the holy Kaaba structure before going home.

Saudi Arabia's top religious leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, told Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef that the incident was beyond human control.

"You are not responsible for what happened," SPA quoted Sheikh as telling him. "Fate and destiny are inevitable." Mohammed chairs the Saudi hajj committee and has ordered an investigation.

King Salman, whose official title is "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques" in Mecca and Medina, also ordered "a revision" of how the hajj is organized.
 Source:AFP
 globaltimes.cn
26/9/15
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