In the aftermath of Thursday’s hajj stampede, the Religious Affairs Ministry, the sole authority to take care of Bangladeshi pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, has done little more than open a hotline number to collect information about those reportedly still missing after the tragedy.
Five days after the deadly stampede, ministry officials are yet to come up with any information about the Bangladeshi pilgrims, apparently due to the Eid-ul-Azha holidays.
The ministry did not even issue a press release or press note. Meanwhile the entire country is concerned about the fate of the Bangladeshi pilgrims.
All of the ministry high-ups, including the religious affairs minister and secretary, are in Saudi Arabia performing the hajj. Three Bangladeshi teams containing around 300 officials and staff are working to assist the pilgrims.
The Bangladesh mission in Saudi Arabia had not received reports of casualties until yesterday when the Saudi authorities published photos of 650 dead, including three Bangladeshis.
Local private television channels, quoting relatives, reported the deaths of nine Bangladeshi pilgrims as of Thursday.
President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is now in the United States, Leader of the Opposition in parliament Raushan Ershad and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia expressed shock soon after the incident occurred.
The stampede, according to Saudi counts, killed as many as 769 pilgrims and injured more than 800 others in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca. But Iranian and Lebanese media claimed the number was not less than 2,000.
Iran has blamed negligence of the Saudi authorities in performing their duties for the incident while the latter alleged that the violation of rules by some 300 Iranian pilgrims had caused the deadly stampede.
On September 11, at least 107 hajj pilgrims, including one Bangladeshi, were killed when a crane collapsed inside the Grand Mosque. Negligence of the construction firm, Saudi Bin Laden Group, and bad weather were blamed for the incident.
Hajj Officer of the Bangladesh Embassy in Jeddah Md Asaduzzaman said they had received reports that 128 pilgrims were missing.
Md Faizur Rahman Faruqui, deputy secretary of the Religious Affairs Ministry, said: “Through media we learned that nine Bangladeshi pilgrims reportedly died.”
Asked why the ministry had no updates, Faruqui said: “We cannot say anything without getting a report from Saudi Arabia.”
“There is a 35-member administrative team, an 11-strong hajj representative team headed by the minister and 263 assistants in Saudi Arabia,” he said.
Some 101,758 Bangladeshi pilgrims were set to perform the Hajj this year.
