A Saudi diplomat reported on Wednesday that 68 Indian nationals have died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage, which has been marked by intense heat, bringing the total death toll to over 600. “We have around 68 verified deaths. Some are the result of natural causes, and there were a lot of elderly pilgrims. We presume that some of them are caused by the weather,” the diplomat told AFP, requesting anonymity. This new figure follows reports from two Arab diplomats on Tuesday that recorded 550 deaths during the pilgrimage, a fundamental practice in Islam for those who are able.
According to the Arab diplomats, the death toll includes 323 Egyptians and 60 Jordanians, with one diplomat attributing almost all Egyptian fatalities to the heat. Other countries, including Indonesia, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia, and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, have also confirmed fatalities, though many have not specified the causes. An AFP count indicates 645 confirmed deaths to date. Last year, over 200 pilgrims died, mostly from Indonesia. While Saudi Arabia documented more than 2,700 cases of “heat exhaustion” on Sunday alone, it has yet to release specific statistics on deaths.
The diplomat confirming the Indian fatalities mentioned that some Indian pilgrims are also missing, but declined to provide an exact number. “This happens every year… We can’t say that it is abnormally high this year,” he stated. For several years, the Hajj has occurred during the extreme heat of the Saudi summer. A recent Saudi study indicated that temperatures in the areas where rituals are performed are increasing by 0.4 degrees Celsius (0.72 degrees Fahrenheit) each decade.
Post Your Comments