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Twenty-one Hajj pilgrims trampled

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Twenty-one Hajj pilgrims trampled
Sabr
02/13/03 at 09:40:05
MINA, Saudi Arabia -- Another 21 people were trampled to death Wednesday on their way to one of the rituals of the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi officials said.

Wednesday's deaths happened on a bridge as the throngs of pilgrims were heading to throw stones at one of three pillars representing Satan's temptation of Abraham, the officials said. The stoning represents a rejection of evil deeds.

On Tuesday, a similar incident killed 14 pilgrims -- three Indians, four Pakistanis, two Egyptians, one Iranian, one Yemeni and one Sudanese.

Saudi officials said Wednesday they had begun an investigation of the reasons behind the deaths.

The ritual is fraught with danger because of overcrowding.

Chanting "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great," pilgrims threw seven small pebbles at each of three gray stone pillars in the last ritual of the five-day Hajj, or annual pilgrimage.

The ritual, which symbolizes the rejection of earthly temptations, will be repeated Thursday as the Hajj winds down.

"I am very scared because of the huge crowd," said a 43-year old Egyptian pilgrim, Abdel-Qader Hussein. "I have two kids with me, so I will try to go as late as possible when there are less people."

Watched by guards and policemen, pilgrims are directed to approach the stoning site in orderly waves to avoid disasters like Tuesday's that left 14 people dead and 15 others with minor injuries.

The deaths took place when a group of pilgrims finished the ritual and was leaving as another wave entered, swelling the crowd dangerously on a market street.

Three Indians, four Pakistanis, two Egyptians, an Iranian, a Yemeni and a Sudanese were killed. Two others had not yet been identified.

Following Tuesday's disaster, Saudi authorities said they had strengthened emergency services. Eight medical units were set up around the pillars to deal with any stampedes.

"We have increased the level of coordination among all concerned authorities to avoid what happened (Tuesday)," said Othman al-Maymani, Mecca's province health affairs director.

Al-Maymani said ambulances could not reach the site of the stampede quickly because of traffic jams caused by the nearly 2 million pilgrims converging in Mina, which comes alive only once a year during the Hajj. We were all focusing on the area where the three stone pillars are and did not pay much attention to areas nearby in which the incident took place," al-Maymani told The Associated Press.

But some pilgrims remained skeptical that keeping order was possible in such a large crowd.

"From my experience, it is hard to have full control over the stoning site. Many pilgrims could be mistakenly hit by stones," said Sudanese pilgrim Abdel-Hadi Mohammed, 45, who is performing the Hajj for the fifth time. "I am afraid to die, but this is a ritual that has to be performed," he said.

All around, hundreds of security personnel controlled traffic and warned pilgrims not to sit or sleep in the streets.

In the past, the Mina ritual has been the source of dangerous bottlenecks.

In 2001, 35 people died in a stampede there. In 1998, 180 died performing the same ritual. A year earlier, more than 340 people died in a fire that ripped through pilgrims' tents in Mina.


[glow=red,2,300]May allah let them be among the dwellers of paradise[/glow]. Ameen

02/13/03 at 09:56:08
Sabr


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