RNA - Speaking in a ceremony in the central city of Shahreza on Friday night to commemorate the Iranian victims of last year’s Hajj tragedy in Saudi Arabia’s Mina, Hojatoleslam Ali Qazi-Askar said the incidents that occurred in Masjid al-Haram in Mecca last year were among the most bitter incidents in the history of Hajj.
In the Mina tragedy, the Saudi regime’s mismanagement of Hajj was proved, he said, adding that disaster relief operations by the regime were not carried out in a timely manner, and that led to the deaths of at least 7,000 Hajj pilgrims.
“…The Al Saud regime, from the beginning of its reign to now, has proved that it is unable to manage Hajj rituals completely and properly,” the cleric went on to say.
He made the remarks on the occasion of the first anniversary of the deadly crush of people during the last year’s Hajj rituals in Mina, near the Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca, which claimed the lives of over 7000 pilgrims, including 465 Iranians.
The incident marked the worst ever tragedy during Hajj.
In a message on the occasion earlier on September 5, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei strongly slammed “murderous” Saudi rulers for refusing to allow an international probe into last year’s deadly Mina crush, urging Muslims to “correctly understand their (Saudis’) blasphemous, faithless, dependent and materialistic nature”.
“Several thousand families from different countries lost their loved ones and their nations were bereaved. From the Islamic Republic, close to five hundred people were among the martyrs. The hearts of their families are still broken and bereaved and our people remain grief-stricken and angry,” the Leader said.
“Instead of apology and remorse and judicial prosecution of those who were directly at fault in that horrifying event, Saudi rulers- with utmost shamelessness and insolence- refused to allow the formation of an international Islamic fact-finding committee.”
Ayatollah Khamenei further stressed, “The world of Islam, including Muslim governments and peoples, must familiarize themselves with the Saudi rulers and correctly understand their blasphemous, faithless, dependent and materialistic nature. They must not let those rulers escape responsibility for the crimes they have caused throughout the world of Islam.”
111/847/C