Iran says death toll of nationals in Hajj crush rises to 464

The Iranian death toll in the recent stampede during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia has jumped above 450, state media reported.

Frustration has also risen in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-populated nation, where the official death toll reached 59 on Thursday with 74 missing.

Saudi Minister of Health Khaled Bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Hashimi, discuss the Mina tragedy in Jeddah, late Wednesday.

Hundreds of people are still unaccounted for a week after a hajj stampede killed hundreds more, with national tallies of the dead far exceeding figures provided by Saudi Arabia.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reportedly warned Saudi Arabia of “harsh” measures if it will not promptly repatriate the bodies of Iranian Hajj stampede victims.

Pakistan’s media regulator, Pemra, ordered television channels to tone down criticism of Saudi Arabia in order to avoid offending one of Islamabad’s closest allies.

“Seven days after the incident and after visiting hospitals [in Saudi Arabia]… we sadly announce that number of Iranians who died is 464″, the Hajj Organization said in a statement published on state TV website IRIB, according to Reuters.

“We were assured that no Iranian would be buried (in Saudi Arabia) without the permission of the government and their relatives”, he said.

The Iranian news agency quotes the information as coming from European Union staff who say “they heard the whispers going on among European diplomats in Brussels who feared that what happened in Mina during the stoning ritual was an orchestrated and prepared operation” by the Israeli Mossad.

But even before the hajj began, disaster struck Mecca as a tower construction crane crashed into the Grand Mosque on September 11, killing at least 111 people.

Ghazanfar Roknabadi, 49, the country’s former ambassador to Lebanon, a highly sensitive post, is among the four. “I pray Allah Almighty to include those dead among martyrs and give their family members strength and patience to overcome this mishap”, she said while praying for the speedy recovery for those injured in the tragedy.Samaa has also become voice of the missing Pakistanis.

At the end of the meeting the Iranian minister said the stampede was “something out of people’s control”.

Iran claims that 4,000 people have been killed, while Nigeria and India, whose nationals were among the dead, said earlier this week that they had received photographs showing 1,090 corpses.