Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani offers condolence to Hajj stampede victims

Expediency Council Chairman Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani offered condolences to the families of killed victims in Thursday fatal stampede during this year's annual Hajj pilgrimage.

In a statement released on Friday, the senior Iranian politician urged the Saudi officials to feel responsible towards the sad incidence and to explain the real causes of it to the Islamic world and the bereaved pilgrims' relatives.

Ayatollah Rafsanjani encouraged all the relief organizations to take immediate action for helping the injured.

According to the Guardian Daily, witnesses to a stampede that left more than 700 people dead at the hajj in Saudi Arabia on Thursday blamed Saudi authorities and said they were afraid to continue the rituals.

The worst tragedy in 25 years at the annual Muslim pilgrimage occurred on Thursday during the symbolic stoning of the devil at Mina, just outside the holy city of Mecca.

Saudi Arabia's latest Hajj disaster raises serious safety questions.

At least 1,000 people were killed and twice as many people were hurt, spurring King Salman to order “a revision” of Hajj organization while authorities started to investigate the disaster.

“There was crowding. The police had closed all entrances and exits to the pilgrims’ camp, leaving only one,” said Ahmed Abu Bakr, a 45-year-old Libyan who escaped the stampede with his mother.

He added that police at the scene appeared inexperienced. “They don’t even know the roads and the places around here,” he said as others nodded in agreement.



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