Many of them were from Pakistan or India. This is the highest loss of life during the hajj in 25 years since 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims perished. The reasons for the stampede were not immediately clear. It seems, however, that guidelines and instructions issued by the responsible authorities were not respected. But in the same area other deadly crushes occurred over the years. This year, nearly 2 million pilgrims attended, including 1.4 million foreigners. More than 4,000 emergency workers and 220 ambulances rushed to the scene. Irfan al-Alawi, the executive director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation said that the disaster was a result of “poor management” by the government.
