‘We can’t find him’ – pilgrims lament after hajj disaster


AFP – “We can’t find him” was the lament of anxious relatives and friends Saturday as they scoured hospital wards and the morgue, two days after the disaster at the hajj.
Those killed have yet to be identified after Thursday’s crush in Mina, near the Saudi city of Mecca, during the “stoning of the devil” ritual at the annual pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest sites.
The official casualty toll among the two million pilgrims from around the world stands at 717 dead and more than 800 wounded.
Frustrated families have been left with the painful task of trying to find out for themselves whether loved ones are dead or alive.
“They say they don’t have his name registered,” an agitated Egyptian pilgrim said after arguing with reception staff at Mina Emergency Hospital.
The pilgrim, who gave his name only as Abdullah, said he was searching for his 36-year-old neighbour.
“I’ve been going around hospitals but couldn’t find him. They told me go to the morgue,” said Abdullah.
“We can’t find him, neither among the wounded nor among the dead.”
Leaving the hospital was another Egyptian, looking for a fellow pilgrim who was staying in the same part of Mina’s tent city used for the hajj.
“I don’t have the nerves to talk,” he said. “His wife is breaking down at the camp. She didn’t even perform the hajj rituals.”
Upstairs, another man, Tareq, went from room to room seeking the wife of a fellow pilgrim.
“Her husband is at the camp and couldn’t look for himself, he’s in such a state of shock. We are helping him,” said the Egyptian, rushing from internal medicine to the surgical ward.
Rushing up and down the stairs, Mohammed Bilal, also Egyptian, looked in vain for a friend’s 60-year-old mother, whose phone has been switched off since the disaster.
“The first thing we did was go check if she’s among the dead in Muaisem, but we found nothing,” he said, referring to an area near Mina where the morgue is located.
“We then began going from hospital to hospital.”
– ‘She’s not there’ –
On his tour of hospitals, Bilal, 35, showed staff the woman’s picture on his mobile phone.



Check the PM News newspaper for the full story.






























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