Another Iranian victim of Hajj stampede identified on DNA record

Ammar Mir-Ansari was a member of the Supreme Leader's office in Mecca who was identified with a DNA test.

The body of the official along with bodies of a number of other Iranian pilgrims, including Iran's former ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi, had been buried in Mecca by Saudi government.

Mir-Ansari was the elder son of Mohsen Ansari, the Acting Head of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs. He left three children after him.

He was born and died on the Feast of Sacrifice. He was 35 at the time of death.

The Hajj tragedy occurred after two large masses of pilgrims converged at a crossroads in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca during the symbolic ceremony of the Stoning of Satan in Jamarat.

Saudi Arabia claims nearly 770 people were killed in the fatal incident, but according to officials at Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization about 4,700 people, including 464 Iranian pilgrims, lost their lives in the tragic event.

However, foreign officials put the death toll at 1,674. The bodies of 399 Iranian victims have been repatriated so far.


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