18 deaths claimed so far

At least 18 Bangladeshis are among those killed in the September 24 stampede in Makkah, Hajj Agencies' Association of Bangladesh (Haab) said yesterday quoting Bangladesh Hajj Mission in Saudi Arabia.

Ninety more are still missing amid fears that the death toll would rise, said Haab President Ibrahim Bahar. 

He couldn't give any details of the deceased Bangladeshis.

Talking to The Daily Star over the phone yesterday, Nazrul Islam, deputy chief of mission at Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh, said they were trying to get details of the dead and missing Bangladeshis by verifying photographs that the Saudi authorities gave them.

Arab News reports, the authorities displayed 1,100 photographs of the stampede victims at the Muaisam mortuary in Mina.

"Many of them died from heatstroke and other natural causes during the pilgrimage," a Saudi official said, putting the death toll from the Mina stampede at 769.

The Saudi authorities also took fingerprints of the dead and were checking those with the ones they collected from the pilgrims upon their arrival. But the authorities are yet to provide any details.

In a statement on Sunday, Bangladesh foreign ministry said it learnt of the death of four Bangladeshis in the stampede. The ministry, however, didn't give any update on it yesterday.

Against this backdrop, relatives of the missing Bangladeshis are passing their days in deep anxiety.

On September 24, Mohammad Razin, a resident of Dhanmondi in the capital, came to know from a relative in Makkah that his father MA Razzak Mia, a senior jail superintendent, and mother Hasina Akhter were killed in the stampede.

But the Bangladesh authorities couldn't give him any information about his parents till yesterday.  

Razin said he went to the foreign ministry, hoping officials there would be able to help him. But it was of no avail.

"Are the authorities trying to hold back information? Why doesn't the Hajj Mission provide the list of the dead and the missing ones?" he asked.

Like him, Farhan Naveed Chowdhury from the capital's Kalabagan is worried about his parents after he heard from his relatives in Saudi Arabia that his father AK Fazlul Haque Chowdhury and mother Halima Akhter were killed in the stampede.

Farhan said he called the hotline at Bangladesh Embassy in Saudi Arabia many times on the Eid day but none picked up the phone.

He heard an automated voice message in Arabic every time he made a call.

Farhan said he was trying to get a visa to travel to Saudi Arabia.

According to Arab News, the whereabouts of dozens of pilgrims, both from the Kingdom and other countries, remain unknown.

From all over the Kingdom, hundreds of relatives of the missing pilgrims converged on Makkah in search of their loved ones. Diplomats from many countries continue to visit the mortuary in Mina, seeking information about their citizens.

Requesting anonymity, a Bangladesh Embassy official in Saudi Arabia said Indian Hajj Committee was updating the names and passport numbers of the dead on its website every day, but Bangladesh Hajj Mission couldn't do that.

"There are a lack of coordination and shortage of logistics and manpower," the official said.