Indonesia criticizes Saudis for hajj response

Indonesia criticizes Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for its slow response to the hajj pilgrimage disaster in Mina, saying its diplomats only received full access to the dead and injured days after the crush.

The criticism from Indonesia, the Muslim world’s most populous country, comes as its officials, as well as those in India and Pakistan, say that Saudi officials gave foreign diplomats some 1,100 pictures of those killed in last week’s disaster.

The Saudi Health Ministry’s latest figures, released Saturday, puts the toll at 769 people killed and 934 injured in the stampede.

A Pakistani man receives his family member who returned from Saudi Arabia after the hajj pilgrimage, at Karachi airport, Pakistan, Monday, Sept. 28, 2015. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)
A Pakistani man receives his family member who returned from Saudi Arabia after the hajj pilgrimage, at Karachi airport, Pakistan, Monday, Sept. 28, 2015. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

Saudi authorities have said that the disaster began when two large waves of pilgrims converged on a narrow road last Thursday during the final days of the annual hajj in Mina near the holy city of Mecca. Survivors say the crowding caused people to suffocate and eventually trample one another in the worst disaster to befall the annual pilgrimage in a quarter-century.

— AP

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