Pictures of pilgrims dressed in white being carried away from the site of stampede in Saudi Arabia during the Hajj convey grief, loss and a sense of shock. The devastating incident occurred when two large lines of pilgrims converged on each other at right angles. The push of the crowd, restriction of space, heat and eagerness to get the last rite of the pilgrimage over with, all contributed to the disaster that left 717 people dead and 863 injured. Families have been torn apart by grief and life will never be the same for those who have lost a member. The Saudi government blamed the pilgrims for not following orders while Iran and a host of Muslim nations have pointed a finger at the government for not putting in place adequate measures to deal with exigencies. This is the second disaster to strike in two weeks after a gigantic crane collapsed at the Grand Mosque killing 109 pilgrims. For Muslims around the world the tragedy sucked Eid-al-Adha of the usual festive spirit. It is difficult to celebrate when pilgrims in Mecca are in mourning.
The Hajj, which is mandatory for ever Muslim to undertake at least once in his or her lifetime, is a gigantic gathering of pilgrims. It is literally a sea of people and the Saudi government has invested nearly $60 billion in improving facilities and crowd control measures. The last rite of the Hajj is the stoning of the devil for tempting Abraham. To do this pilgrims have to approach the Jamarat pillars through pre-ordained routes and cast seven small pebbles. The tragedy occurred on the route to the pillars. A deadlier stampede occurred in 1990 when nearly 1,500 pilgrims lost their lives. In 2006 about 350 people lost their lives to a similar incident. Since then facilities and safety measures have been upgraded but all that came apart on Thursday under tragic circumstances.
India, with a plethora of pilgrimage sites has also witnessed tragedies of a similar sort. In 2005 about 300 people, mostly women and children lost their lives on a narrow temple leading to the Kalubai temple in Satara district of Maharashtra and in 2013 two incidents, one at the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad and the other at Ratangarh Mata temple in Madhya Pradesh, resulted in the death of 151 pilgrims.
Large congregations of people are always a nightmare for governments, police and civic administration on account of the problems and risks they pose. Most of the times the event goes on without any untoward incident but every now and then the arrangements suddenly appear to come apart resulting in a stampede. Controlling large crowds is not an easy task and recently the administration banned pilgrims at the Nashik Kumbh from stopping at certain sites to take selfies.
The Saudi administration has ordered a probe into the incident and hopefully its finding will be made public so that people around the world can understand and take stock of what happened. The lives lost can never be brought back and families will continue to grieve for years to come, but if safety measures can be improved, and they must, then future Haj pilgrims will feel safer.
