As the days progress the Saudi Arabia authorities give a revised list of the number of Haajis who died due to exhaustion and extreme heat during Hajj pilgrimage. God have his mercy on us, some rough estimates put the number of those dead in thousands. While as certain conservative estimates put the number of dead to close to two thousand. We do not know the right number though but as things stand there are reports pouring in that those who are extremely critical are not being given due medical care because of which the number of casualties could increase.
While Saudi authorities are blaming the over-zealous Haajis for going out during the noon hours in 50 degree Celsius temperature thre are contradictory reports pouring in which point to the contradictory. There are reports pouring in which sat that a metro running through the hottest stretch of the road was stopped indefinitely and Haajis were forced to take busses. The directions of how to survive the heat wave were given mainly in Arabic and was mainly unintelligible to the non-Arab Haajis. A video viral on social networking sites shows dead body on the streets. The same video shows a few extremely serious patients lying on road without any medical help reaching them.
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The pictures do not lie is an age-old saying. In this case, the pictures emerging from the Hajj pilgrimage are horrifying to say the least. Already ten Haajis, predominantly females, have been declared due to heat wave and exhaustion. As things are shaping up it appears this number could very well rise.
The non-Arabs mainly go to this all-important pilgrimage at the fag of their life making them more susceptible to fatigue and weather anomalies.
The Saudi authorities earn billions of rupees from the Hajj pilgrimage. The annual Hajj pilgrimage is still one of the key component of the Saudi GDP despite the petro-dollar riches. Saudi authorities have a lot to answer for once the final count of deceased Haajis is out in public domain.
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