No Fact-Finding Committee Set Up to Probe Mina Disaster: Cleric
This is according to Hojat-ol-Islam Seyed Ali Qaziaskar, the head of the Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought’s Council, speaking at a ceremony held Thursday in Qom to unveil works related to the Mina Disaster.
On September 24, 2015, thousands of Hajj pilgrims, including at least 465 Iranians, died in a crush in Mina, near Mecca, when performing the Hajj rituals.
The crush was the deadliest incident in the history of the pilgrimage. According to an Associated Press count based on official statements from the 36 countries that lost citizens in the disaster, more than 2,400 pilgrims were killed in the incident.
Saudi Arabia claims nearly 770 people were killed, but officials at Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization say about 7,000 people, including over 460 Iranian pilgrims, lost their lives.
Hojat-ol-Islam Qaziaskar noted that 800 of the pilgrims who had attended Hajj in 2015, when the tragedy occurred, have contributed to the works unveiled on Thursday.
He also noted that efforts continue so that relatives would receive the Diya of the martyrs of the Mina incident.
Diya in Islamic law, is the financial compensation paid to the victim or heirs of a victim in the cases of murder, bodily harm or property damage.
