Iran: Missing pilgrims possibly buried in Saudi Arabia

Tehran says unidentified victims of stampede during hajj may have been interred by gulf state authorities

By AP 21 October 2015, 12:49 am

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (center) places flowers on the caskets of Iranian pilgrims, killed in a stampede at the annual hajj, during a repatriation ceremony upon their arrival on October 3, 2015 at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport. (AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE)

Iran’s official IRNA news agency has said that some Iranian pilgrims still missing since a September stampede during the hajj may have been possibly buried in Saudi Arabia.

The Tuesday report quoted Ali Marashi, an official with Iran’s Red Crescent, as saying it was “possible” that Saudi authorities may have simply buried the unidentified victims. Tehran says 36 Iranian pilgrims are still unaccounted for.

Iran, with 465 pilgrims killed, has repeatedly blamed the disaster on the Saudi government, accusing it of mismanagement and of covering up the real death toll, which Tehran says exceeds 4,700, without providing evidence.

“The lying and hypercritical bodies, which claim to (be promoting) human rights, as well as the Western governments, which sometimes make great fuss over the death of a single person, remained dead silent in this incident in favor of their allied government,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Monday, according to a transcript on his website.

“If they were sincere, these self-proclaimed advocates of human rights should have demanded accountability, compensation, guarantee for non-recurrence and punishment for the perpetrators of this catastrophe.”
An independent counting by The Associated Press shows at least 2,177 pilgrims from various countries were killed in the incident.

The official Saudi toll of 769 people killed and 934 injured has not changed since September 26.

King Salman ordered the investigation into the disaster, the deadliest in the history of the annual pilgrimage. It came after a crane collapse in Mecca earlier that month killed 111 worshipers, and the twin disasters marred the first hajj to be overseen by the king since he ascended to the throne at the start of this year.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are deeply divided on a host of regional issues and back opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been at war with Iran-backed Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, since March.