About 717 people were killed and 863 injured at the Hajj stampede in Saudi Arabia on Thursday.
According to the Saudi Civil Defence Service, the stampede broke out during the symbolic stoning of the devil ritual.
Several Nigerians are believed to have been killed in the stampede, which occurred in Mina.
A journalist with the Voice of American, Nasir Adamu el-Hikaya, revealed to Thisday, that many of the Nigerian victims were from Lagos, Kastina and Borno states.
NigerianEye confirmed that Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Maiduguri, Prof Tijani al-Miskin, and a female Nigerian veteran journalist, Bilkisu Yusuf, were among the 717 pilgrims who died in the Hajj stampede in Mecca on Thursday.
Yusuf, who was the first female editor from the North, was a graduate of political science and journalism. She pursued a successful career in journalism in Nigeria, working for Daily Trust and Leadership newspapers.
Another victim was Hafsat Shittu, who was a member of the Nigeria’s medical team in Mecca.
Reacting to the tragedy, the factional Deputy National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Issa Aremu, on Friday said though the death of pilgrims in Mecca was tragic, they did not die in vain.
Aremu, who spoke to journalists in Ilorin, described the incident as a spiritual accident.
He said, “We believe, as Muslims, that death is inevitable, but it is more exciting when one dies in the Holy Land.
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Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Maiduguri, Prof. Tijjani El-Miskin
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“They died in the course of serving Almighty Allah. They did not die stealing money; they did not die destroying public property and they did not die killing people like suicide bombers, but they died while worshiping Allah.”
While the Saudi authorities blamed the incident on the pilgrims’ failure to follow crowd control rules, its regional rival, Iran, had expressed outrage at the deaths of 131 of its nationals, with Iranian politicians suggesting that Saudi authorities were incapable of managing the event.
“Death to the Saudi dynasty!” hundreds of demonstrators chanted at a protest in Tehran Iran, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani also blamed Saudi Arabia for the incident.
“I ask the Saudi Arabian government to take responsibility for this catastrophe and fulfill its legal and Islamic duties in this regard,” Rouhani said in a statement published on the state news agency IRNA.
But Saudi Health Minister, Khalid al-Falih, assured that an investigation would be conducted and a final toll of the dead and wounded calculated.
“The investigations into the incident of the stampede that took place in Mina, which was perhaps because some pilgrims moved without following instructions by the relevant authorities, will be fast and will be announced as has happened in other incidents,” Falih said in a statement.
Saudi King Salman had also ordered a review of Hajj plans after the disaster, in which two big groups of pilgrims collided at a crossroads in Mina, a few miles east of Mecca, on their way to performing the “stoning of the devil” ritual at Jamarat.
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