New Delhi: It's the worst possible way the Haj could have ended. After six days of prayers, Mecca saw what has now become, regretfully, a graveyard.
At least 28 Indians were among the 350 Haj pilgrims who died in a stampede on Thursday at Mina.
As the news of the killer stampede poured in, woes spilled over for the families of the Indian victims.
Till Friday evening, many of these families were clueless about the exact status of their kith and kin and had no information on the whereabouts of the bodies.
India's Minister of State for External Affairs, E Ahamed said that since Mecca and Medina are holy places, those who die there are normally buried there only.
"We have no information about any body being taken out of the country. Bodies can be taken back to their homeland only with the consent of the relatives of the deceased," he added.
The stampede occurred during the stone-throwing ritual in which the pilgrims stone an oval wall that symbolises the devil.
The Saudi Interior Ministry says the incident took place when pilgrims created a bottleneck at the eastern edge of the bridge leading to the oval wall. It also says the number of casualties is likely to rise.
Among those who died was a 40-year-old woman from Varanasi, Roshan Jahan. Her bereaved family is still trying to recover from the shocking news and they blame both the Indian and Saudi Arabian governments for the tragedy.
Jahan and her husband went to Lucknow on December 27 and left for Jeddah on December 30. There was no news of her husband till late at night when he himself called up his family.
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Roshan's son, Wasim Ansari says, "It is bad time for all of us. Our mother has died and we are worried about our father."
Her family only realised that Roshan had died when they saw her photograph in the local newspaper on Friday morning.
For Roshan's family, the news is yet to sink in. Though she was only 40, she has left behind a family of 10 children — four boys and six girls. Her husband Altaaf is a Banarsi sari manufacturer.
Her father, Hazi Hasibutullah, is inconsolable both by the news and the lack of information thereafter.
Hasibutullah says, "The Wafat appointed by the Haj committee is not telling us who was in charge of the Indians travellers there."
The much talked about administrative machinery for the Haj pilgrims has been found wanting again after the tragedy.
After the call from Roshan's husband the family tried all help line numbers to get more information but in vain.
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Roshan's neighbour, Jamaal Ansari said that the government had still not got in touch with them.
"No one picks up the phone when we try the help lines of the Haj committee. In our faith, we pray to Allah that we die in his place, but the authorities still need to take care of all arrangements such as informing relatives and organising dignified burials for the people."
And Roshan Jahan is not the only one. Rashida Bi's family in Jabalpur has been in a state of shock since they came to know that she died in the stampede.
Her son, Jameel Khan realised that his mother had died when he logged on to the list of the dead and the injured on the Indian Consulate General's website.
Rasheeda had left Jabalpur for the Haj pilgrimage on December 29. She was accompanied by her husband Azam Khan.
There is still no word about her husband.
Almost 60,000 people from different fields — including security, health and emergency personnel — were involved in organising this year's Haj, but even they couldn't prevent the disaster.
The stampede was the second tragedy to hit this year's pilgrimage. Last week, 76 people were killed when a hostel collapsed.
Nearly three million Muslims are believed to have made the pilgrimage.
The death of 28 Indians in the stampede has once again brought to the fore, the lack of security for the pilgrims and the lack of information for relatives during Haj — this despite the repeated tragic incidents that have plagued the place of pilgrimage.
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