The stampede that unfolded in the early hours of Wednesday (29th January) on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya in the ongoing Mahakumbh in Prayagraj is being widely discussed around the world. As per official figures, around 30 people lost their lives and around 60 people have suffered injuries in the tragic pandemonium.
In social and religious events, the drastic surge in crowd pressure has often triggered tragic stampedes. Globally, hundreds of tragic cases of stampedes have been reported in which the conservative death toll figure runs in lakhs. Incidentally, the 2015 Hajj pilgrimage tragedy that unfolded in Saudi Arabia alone claimed the lives of over 2400 people making it one of the world’s deadliest stampedes.
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2411 Haj pilgrims died
On 24 September 2015, a horrific stampede occurred during the religious ritual of Islam, Hajj, in the city of Mina which is adjacent to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Varied casualty figures were reported in this tragic incident, but, as per the official figure released by the Saudi Arabian government, 769 Hajj pilgrims died while around 940 people suffered grievous injuries. However, different media reports put the death toll at over 1000.
In its reportage, the Associated Press released the death toll figure in December claiming that at least 2411 Hajj pilgrims were confirmed dead in the September Hajj stampede tragedy.
A Nigerian official, Yusuf Ibrahim Yakasai, had told the BBC about this stampede. He said that he had gone to Jeddah and from there 14 trucks full of dead bodies were brought to the city. About 5 days after the incident, Yakasai said that 1075 bodies had been unloaded from 10 trucks to the morgues.
Officials of many countries stated that more than 1000 photographs of the dead were sent to them, thus exposing the official death toll figure released by the Saudi Arabian government.
How did the stampede happen?
There were many reasons behind this stampede, including the haste of the crowd to hurriedly complete the Hajj rituals. Additionally, heat, Hajj pilgrims pushing each other and confusion amongst those who were visiting Mecca and Mina for the first time were attributed as other contributing factors for the tragic stampede. This stampede happened during a (symbolic) religious process of stoning the devil in Mina.
According to media reports, people were moving forward to pelt stones at the devil. At the same time, some people were also coming from the front, and within no time, chaotic scenes prevailed. People started climbing over each other to save their lives, leading to large casualty figures.
According to the BBC, people trapped in the stampede were screaming and asking for help but no one came forward to help them.
Also, the extreme heat on the day of the incident made this accident more horrific. Due to extreme heat, Hajj pilgrims had difficulty in breathing and the number of people falling in the stampede increased. According to eyewitnesses, the security personnel present on the route of the accident did not guide the victims properly, which worsened the situation. Most of the people present at the spot during the accident were from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Senegal. Hundreds of citizens from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh also died in this accident.
‘Humans had no control over the accident’
Regarding this stampede, Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin-Abdullah Al-Sheikh had said that humans had no control over this stampede. He had told the Home Minister of Saudi Arabia that no one is at fault in this because no one had any authority over destiny and fate.
Many countries had criticized Saudi Arabia for this incident. Apart from this, many incidents of stampedes have occurred during Hajj at different times. Also in 1990, 1,426 pilgrims, including people of Malaysian, Indonesian and Pakistani origin, died inside a pedestrian tunnel leading from Mecca to the plains of Mina and Arafat.
