Indonesia accuses Saudi of hiding facts about Hajj stampede

Indonesia has accused the Saudi authorities of blocking efforts made by its diplomats to attain information on those who died or were injured in the deadly Hajj stampede last week.

An official at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, said that Saudi officials did not provide information about the victims until Monday evening.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifudin said in a statement on Monday that Indonesians did not have free access to hospitals to search for the injured.

“The Saudi Arabian government has its own regulation, tradition, culture and procedures in dealing with such cases,” Saifudin said from Makkah. “This has not allowed us enough freedom in our effort to identify” the victims.

Iran was among the first states to criticise Saudi Arabia over the incident claiming many victims lost their lives due to “bad management”.

Pakistan and India, whose citizens were affected by the deadly crash, also expressed dissatisfaction about the kingdom’s management of the incident.

A Pakistani official said earlier yesterday that the Saudi authorities distributed photos of 1,100 people who lost their lives in the stampede to determine their identities.

Member of the Pakistani parliament Tariq Fazal Chaudhary, who was appointed by the Pakistani prime minister to follow up on Pakistani pilgrims, said: “The images are currently at the Pakistani Consulate in Jeddah.”

Speaking during a press conference in Islamabad yesterday, Chudhary said that as many as 40 Pakistanis lost their lives in the incident, 63 are still missing and that 228 others have been reunited with their families. Some 35 Pakistani pilgrims received treatment in hospitals in Makkah and Jeddah.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj reported on Twitter that 14 Indian citizens had died.

Meanwhile, the head of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organisation Saeed Ohadi announced on Monday that the casualties from the stampede had risen to 4,700.

Ohadi said that the number of Iranian pilgrims killed stands at 228 people, adding that he expected the number to increase.

Saudi Minister of Health Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al-Faleh announced on Saturday that 769 pilgrims were killed in the incident and 934 others were injured.