According to information provided by a Saudi Arabian official to the AFP news agency on Wednesday, June 19, at least 68 Indian people are known to have perished during this year’s Hajj trip, which is a major event for Muslims worldwide and has been plagued by extreme heat.
We now know that there are about 68 deceased. Some are the result of natural causes, and there were a lot of elderly pilgrims. And some are because of the weather, we think,” the ambassador, who wished to remain anonymous, told the outlet.
According to the agency report, the diplomat also stated that there are Indian pilgrims who have been reported missing, but he would not say how many.
“This occurs annually… The ambassador remarked, “We can’t say that it is abnormally high this year; it’s kind of similar to last year, but we will know more in the coming days.”
This raises the total number of fatalities for this Hajj season to 645. Last year, around 200 pilgrims lost their lives.
As temperatures reached as high as 48°C during the trip, almost 2,000 pilgrims suffered from heat exhaustion.
Every year, during the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah, millions of Muslims go to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, as part of one of Islam’s Five Pillars: the Hajj pilgrimage.
Every Muslim who is physically capable of doing so must fulfill this important Islamic duty at least once in their lives.
The pilgrimage this year took place in the sweltering summer heat of Saudi Arabia, which was made worse by a recorded rise in local temperatures in previous years.
A Saudi research published this month found that temperatures in the ritual region increased by 0.4 degrees Celsius every ten years.
Previous reports on Tuesday, June 18, quoting Arab officials, stated that the intense heat was the main cause of the 550 deaths that occurred during the Hajj, including 323 Egyptians and 60 Jordanians.
Other national pilgrimages from Iran, Indonesia, Tunisia, Senegal, and the Kurdistan area of Iraq have also reportedly died.
Authorities in the corresponding nations haven’t yet revealed the reasons behind the deaths, though.
