Missing in Mina

The tragedy of the stampede in Mina weighed heavily over the Eid festivities across the Muslim world. While the official death toll went up to 769, there was no confirmation till Sunday on how many Pakistanis were amongst those who perished in this tragedy. Some international papers claimed that the number was around 240, however, the Ministry of Haj Affairs and the Foreign Office denied it. Various sources did confirm that over 300 Pakistanis were still missing in Makkah three days after the stampede. Officially, the Ministry of Haj Affairs has confirmed the death of only 18 Pakistanis while the Foreign Office has claimed that only 11 Pakistanis have died. What is unclear is whether Pakistani authorities are genuinely clueless or are attempting to control the anger of Pakistanis towards the Saudi authorities by delaying a confirmation of the actual figures for as long as possible. The failure of the Pakistani embassy in Saudi Arabia to deliver any accurate information of how many and who died amongst the Pakistani contingent at Haj is most disturbing.
The Pakistani embassy in Saudi Arabia is technically the only on-ground source for information for Pakistanis. The fact that its website has shared no information at all shows the callousness with which it is being run. The Pakistani ambassador to Saudi Arabia has been reported claiming that it was impossible to trace everyone in a crowd of 2.5 million. But the question is: what has the Pakistani embassy in the country been doing? Has its staff visited the morgue where the bodies are being kept? Has it prepared a list of those missing? Has it met injured Pakistanis? There are glaring failures here. While Pakistani authorities have continued to fail their citizens amidst this tragedy, the media has continued to air interviews of the relatives of the missing. This has made for painful viewing and has only amplified the glaring failure of the Pakistani state in finding its citizens. What is the point of a separate

Ministry of Haj Affairs if it does not have the capability of finding out about the fate of missing Pakistanis on Haj? There are also larger questions over what led to the tragedy in Mina. A blame game has played out in the media with a number of claims made that implicate Saudi authorities in gross mismanagement. Some of these claims are worth investigating while others are clearly malicious and have little to do with facts on the ground. The Imam Kaaba in his Friday sermon called for those responsible to be punished but insisted that the accident should not be used for worldly gains or politics. The second part of the statement was clearly aimed at lowering the volume of criticism aimed at the Saudi organisers. We hope that a neutral inquiry will look into this. As for the missing Pakistani pilgrims, we wish for their safe return but the truth is that the number of Pakistanis dead in the Mina incident looks set to rise.