Saudi government had till September 29 maintained that at least 769 pilgrims were crushed to death on September 24 in one of the deadliest accidents to occur in the Hajj since 1990. However, on September 29, Saudi Deputy Health Minister Hamad bin Muhammad Al-Dhewalia said the death toll in the tragedy had reached 4,173. The statement later disappeared from the Health Ministry’s website.
This was the official announcement:
The Saudi Deputy Minister of Health Mohamed Aldowale stated that the ministry handed over a photo album with photos of 4,173 pilgrims who passed away in Mena accident, and the process of identifying the bodies has started.
He also added that the big number of death was due to heat, suffocation and stampede, according to the report by the Minister of Health.
The primary statistics indicated 769 deaths however our final numbers have increased to 4173 deaths after the ministry received several more bodies yesterday.
Despite all the rumors and news in the media, the ministry would like to reconfirm that this site and its social media handles are the only reliable and formal sources for official statements.
@HamadAlDhewalia الاخ نائب وزير الصحه هل هذا الموقع تابع لكم لأن التصريح منتشر على لسانك ويتم الترويج بأنه موقع رسمي pic.twitter.com/ekSfo1RY8f
— عبدالله البريكي (@AbAlburiki) September 29, 2015
The cause of the disaster is disputed. The fatal crush occurred after two large crowds of pilgrims, who were on their way to participate in the symbolic stoning of Satan, a Hajj ritual, collided. The governor of the Makkah Region and head of the Central Hajj Committee Prince Khaled al-Faisal, however, blamed the stampede on “some pilgrims from African nationalities”.
Damning, must-read account of Saudi regime callousness in Hajj disaster, written by physician who survived stampede http://t.co/9nLyeOjTSS — Borzou Daragahi (@borzou) October 3, 2015
Am in Saudi Arabia looking at the continuing repercussions of the massive Hajj stampede last week pic.twitter.com/rAhf9JeRKg
— Aleem Maqbool (@AleemMaqbool) October 2, 2015
This Article (Did Saudi Arabia Fudge Hajj Stampede Death Toll? Heath Ministry Says 4173 Died, Retracts Later.) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com.
The official cause is a stampede but the unofficial cause is that a dirty royal Saudi entourage arrived and blocked the pilgrims’ routes. They obviously deny this but this has been recounted by many, many witnesses. Dirty Wahhabi fucks!