75 Pakistanis died in Mina incident, LHC told

LAHORE
Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony informed the Lahore High Court on Tuesday that 75 Pakistan died, 47 were injured and 28 are still missing after Mina incident.
On behalf of the ministry, Muhammad Kashif Bara, a section officer, submitted a report before the court on a petition seeking details of the affected pilgrims of Pakistan. He added it was totally incorrect information that 236 Pakistanis lost their lives.
The ministry further stated that tragedy in Mina shocked the whole world. Just to place on record, the entire administration at the Holy Mashaair (Mina/Arafaat and Muzdalifah) are under the direct administrative control of the government of Saudi Arabia, to an extent that all countries are barred from even opening up their medical camps inside the holy Mashaair, the minister said.
It is perception of the petitioner that blame for everything under the sun lies upon the ministry of religious affairs and its officers and team, the section officer said. The directorate general of Hajj, Jeddah had placed its team at the various points in Mina for the guidance of lost pilgrims, which is the only legal work that they are allowed by the government of Saudi Arabia in the Holy Mashaair, he said.
He added that the team of officers and staff of the directorate general of Hajj, Jeddah were amongst the first team of volunteers that arrived at the scene soon after the unfortunate tragedy and started to help and move out the injured and desperate Hujjaj, despite their nationalities. Within a time span of 10 minutes, the Saudi authorities arrived at the scene and cordoned off the entire area and pushed out all the volunteers outside the cordon and then started to work out their own, he said. Thousands of Hujjaj who had gathered all around the outer cordon are witnesses to this fact, he said.
Immediately thereafter, the team of the director general of hajj Jeddah and the embassy of Pakistan, the counsel General of Pakistan at Jeddah and the director general Hajj sent out medical teams to initially the 4 major hospitals in Makkah and the major hospitals in Mina and Arafat areas to ascertain the nationalities of the patients/casualties being brought in these hospitals and the nature of the injuries.
Arif Idrees, a citizen, had filed the petition submitting that 286 pilgrims of Pakistan died in the incident but officials of Religious Ministry Pakistan are misleading people by trying to minimise the death toll. He said day by day the number is increasing and relatives of missing pilgrims are worried about whereabouts and lives of their loved ones but the government is not providing them proper information.
He said all details are with them but in order to cover up corruption the details are not being provided to the public and electronic and print media is helping the public which is the function of the state.
He requested the court to issue directives to the ministry to provide true details about the casualties and injured pilgrims in Mina incident and ensure action against the responsible of withholding the information.
Justice Ayesha A Malik of the LHC directed the petitioner for his rejoinder on reply of the ministry. The judge put off further hearing till October 8.