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Iran holds ceremony to pay tribute to dead Iranians in Saudi Hajj disaster

Xinhua, October 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday urged for an investigation into the latest Hajj stampede in Saudi Arabia which left 465 Iranian pilgrims dead.

A fact-finding committee, made of the representatives of all the Islamic countries, should probe into the causes of the incident in Mina, near Saudi religious city of Mecca, Rouhani said in a ceremony to pay tribute to the dead bodies of 104 Iranian pilgrims transferred to Tehran Mehrabad airport early on Saturday.

"It should be clarified who were responsible for the incident," Rouhani said, adding that Iran will never abstain from the damages inflicted on its nationals in Mina if it is proved that some Saudi authorities caused the disaster.

All Muslim nations should know the causes of the Hajj disaster and they should be assured that such events will never happen in next years in Hajj rituals.

Tehran said about 64,000 Iranians travelled to Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj rituals this year. It has also urged immediate transfer of the dead bodies to Iran, blaming Saudi Arabia's "inefficiency and mismanagement" in handling the largest gathering of Muslims.

The Saudi authorities have earlier put the total number of pilgrims killed in the accident at 769. The Saudi Interior Ministry said the stampede appeared to have been caused by two waves of pilgrims meeting at an intersection. Endit