Lebanon cleric slams Saudi mishandling of 2015 Hajj

A prominent Lebanese cleric has denounced Saudi Arabia’s mishandling of the Hajj pilgrimage, which led to a deadly crush last year, saying the tragedy cannot pass just as an ordinary accident.

Sheikh Maher Hammoud, the imam of al-Quds Mosque in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, told Press TV on Friday that his first impression was to avoid exaggeration and consider the incident as the fate of the victims.

“However, when we saw how they dealt with the bodies and how they buried them without permission of their families … , whether with the Iranians or others, then we said this is not a mere accident and there must have been mismanagement on their part,” Hammoud said.

Thousands of people lost their lives near Mecca on September 24, 2015 after two large masses of pilgrims converged at a crossroads during the symbolic ceremony of the stoning of Satan.

Hammoud accused Saudi officials of dealing with the human crush in an “illogical manner,” saying Riyadh behaves like a dictator when it comes to who should govern 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.

SS