DISASTERS have almost become a routine affair during Haj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. This year more than 340 people, many of them Indians, died when a fire reportedly caused by a gas cylinder was fanned by strong winds in the dusty town of Mina, a major encampment area near Mecca. More than two thousand pilgrims were estimated to have been injured by the flames and ensuing stampede on April 15.
But to the consternation of relatives and friends of victims, information was trickling in very slowly. Mohamed Hamid Ansari, Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told 바카라 that although the Saudi authorities were making a big effort, "obviously with two weeks of national holiday in this country, the bureaucratic machinery does tend to slow down". He pointed to a few other problems as well: "Mina has become a city of tents. Unless the tents are not flammable, this sort of thing is bound to occur given the food habits and cooking arrangements of the people. Secondly, the pilgrims (about two million in all) mostly walk in a very narrow valley between two sets of hills. The widest point in the valley is just 2 km. This also causes stampedes." Like in 1990, when nearly 1,400 pilgrims perished.
K. Raghunath, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, told the press minutes before leaving for Saudi Arabia that about 2,000 tents belonging to Indians were gutted and another 2,000 were partially burnt. "You will appreciate that with so many people in the encampments at Mina, of which there are about 80,000 Indians, it is very difficult to work out estimates of how many are dead," he said. "This will only be possible when the pilgrims, who are on the move right now, return to Mecca." At Mecca, the pilgrim guides, who are responsible for the worshippers, will furnish reports to the authorities based on passport information and eyewitness accounts.
Echoing the worries of Ambassador Ansari was Irshad Ahmad, a 36-year-old businessman from Aligarh, who was forced to come to New Delhi to find out about his five relatives, including his mother, who have gone on the Haj. "I do not think it is a good idea that these tents are made of cloth, maybe they should use cement structures or something," he said.
But the problems also lie with the pilgrims themselves. Most of the Indian Hails take cooking stoves with them, while those from Iran and Iraq manage to bring gas cylinders to do their cooking. "Readymade stuff is available at the markets, but most of the Hajis from India are very poor, so in order to save money, they do their own cooking," says Syed Irfan Mir, assistant secretary of the Delhi Haj Committee. "We are trying to educate the Hajis not to take this sort of inflammable stuff. Even last year I stopped about 275 stoves, but they usually hide them in their luggage." But while most Indian Muslims are willing to accept the fire stoically as an act of God, they are far less forgiving of the Haj Committee. "They are not contacting anyone over the phone or giving satisfactory replies to anybody who wants information about relatives who died in this fire. I can only wait here at this Haj office until I get some answers," says an anxious 28-year old Mohammed Asram, at the Haj Committee office in a crowded part of old Delhi, awaiting news of his 65-year-old father and four other male relatives who undertook the pilgrimage.
The information flow in Saudi Arabia is no better. The Saudis who subsidise the operation have been criticised over the last few years by the Iranians over their repeated failure to manage well the rituals which involve so many people. Western Saudi Arabia, now oil-rich, was for centuries dependent on income from the Haj. Iran has always questioned the Saudis' 'monopoly' over the Haj.
Fires are not the only hazard threatening pilgrims on this holiest of Muslim pilgrimages. Although Hajis are required to be physically fit as they have to walk long distances in the burning summer heat, many Indian pilgrims tend to be in their late sixties or older. "About 300 or 400 Indian pilgrims simply die of natural causes like extreme heat and exhaustion every year," says Talmiz Ahmad, spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs.
As for the tragedy on hand, diplomatic sources say that before a final list of the dead is made out, a less problematic list of those who went missing will be made available to the public in the coming days. But whether that will give succour to the already overwrought relatives of the Hajis waiting in India remains to be seen.
