Saudi authorities has provided more than 1,000 photographs of the dead to foreign diplomats from last week’s hajj stampede, high echelon of Indian and Pakistani authorities have confirmed on Tuesday, saying it’s an indication of a significantly higher death toll than previously offered by the kingdom.
Quoting Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, a lawmaker from Pakistan’s governing PML-N political party who is leading his country’s response to the disaster, news agency AP reported that Saudi officials gave diplomats “1,100 photos” of the dead.
Chaudhry told journalists during a news conference broadcast nationwide on Monday night that the photos could be viewed at Saudi embassies and missions abroad.
“This is the official figure of martyrs from Saudi officials given for the identification process,” AP quoted Chaudhry as saying.
Co-incidentally, his comments echoed those of Sushma Swaraj, Indian external affairs minister, on Sunday. “Saudi authorities have released photos of 1,090 pilgrims who have died in (the hajj) stampede,” Swaraj wrote on Twitter.
However, Indian diplomats and government officials declined to elaborate on Swaraj’s tweet on Monday, reported The Guardian. Neither the liberal British newspaper nor any other authentic news agency could not reach Saudi officials for comment about the discrepancy surrounding the death toll of the disaster in Mina.
Earlier, Saudi authorities have said at least 769 people died when two large waves of pilgrims converged on a narrow road last Thursday during the final days of the annual hajj in Mina near the holy city of Mecca. Survivors say the crowding caused people to suffocate and eventually trample one another.
An investigation is to ascertain the exact cause of the deadly stampede has already been launched.
Regional rival Iran has harshly criticised the kingdom over the hajj disaster, in which many Iranian Shia Muslims died, and daily protests have been taking place near the Saudi embassy in Tehran since the tragedy.
Iran raised the death toll of its nationals at the disaster at the hajj in Saudi Arabia to 226 on Monday from 169 and said President Hassan Rouhani was cutting short his visit to the UN General Assembly in New York to attend their funerals, news agency Reuters reported.
Iran’s head of hajj organisation, Saeed Ohadi, was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency that 246 Iranians were also still unaccounted for.
Rouhani will arrive in Tehran on Tuesday morning, state news agency IRNA said, the same day that some of the bodies of the victims were being transferred to Iran.
Iranian officials have said the overall total death toll in the crush is more than 1,000.
Iran has demanded an apology from Saudi Arabia over the deaths and accused it of trying to evade blame, while Riyadh accused Tehran of playing politics with the disaster.
The hajj this year drew some two million pilgrims from 180 countries, though in previous years it has drawn more than 3 million without any major incidents.
Able-bodied Muslims are required to perform the five-day pilgrimage once in their lifetime, and each year poses a massive logistical challenge for the kingdom.