Saudi Arabia to blame for Mecca tragedy

The disaster at Mina in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in which a large number of pilgrims from different countries died in a stampede on September 24 has caused grief not only to the Muslim world but to humanity in general.

The tragedy happened two weeks after 107 pilgrims died in Mecca after a huge construction crane collapsed.

The death of such a large number of pilgrims has raised concern about the capability of the Saudi regime in administering the affairs of the Grand Mosque. This was outright negligence of the Saudi officials due to their disregard of safety measures in overseeing ongoing construction projects around the city’s holy sites.

In 1990, more than 1,400 Muslim pilgrims also died in a stampede in an air-conditioned pedestrian tunnel.

Every year, about two millions Hindu pilgrims and tourists gather at Varanasi’s ghat to bathe on the banks of the sacred river Ganges. There has never been any tragedy.

About 20 million Shia Muslims attend ritual event of Arbaeen in recent years to commemorate the martyrdom of the Grandson of Prophet Muhammad in the war-torn Iraq city of Karbala and there too, there has never been any catastrophe regardless of the limited resources compared to the Saudi’s hajj management that has a bigger budget but cannot manage two million Muslims in Mina.

It is necessary to find a solution on managing hajj rituals. The first step would be to form a fact-finding committee on behalf of all Islamic countries in order to inspect the dimensions of the deadly events.

The Saudi government is obligated to accept its heavy responsibility in this bitter incident and meet its obligations in compliance with the rule of fairness.

The Saudi tragedy is not a small issue. This issue will not be forgotten and the nations will make follow-ups.

Instead of playing blame game, the Saudi government must apologise to the Islamic community and families of victims.