A stoning Haj ritual will be more tightly controlled during next month’s pilgrimage, Saudi newspapers reported yesterday.
The period during which pilgrims can perform the Jamarat ritual will be reduced by 12 hours, the Saudi Gazette and Arab News said.
The symbolic stoning of the devil will be performed as usual over three days beginning September 11 at Mina, about 5km east of Makkah’s Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest site.
But this year there will be no stoning allowed from 6:00 to 10:30am on the first day, from 2:00 to 6:00pm on the second day and from 10:30am to 2:00pm on the final day, the Haj ministry said.
“This procedure will enable the pilgrims to throw stones easily and will prevent any stampede that may result from overcrowding,” the Saudi Gazette quoted ministry undersecretary Hussain al-Sharif as saying.
He did not elaborate on how the new time restrictions would reduce the potential for overcrowding.
Last year’s stampede occurred outside the five-storey Jamarat Bridge, a structure resembling a huge parking garage which hosts the stoning ritual and cost more than $1bn to build.
It is almost 1km (more than half a mile) long and allows 300,000 pilgrims an hour to carry out the ritual.
Crown Prince Mohamed bin Nayef, the interior minister who also chairs the Haj committee, ordered a probe immediately after the disaster but there has been no word on its findings.
However, officials have announced a number of safety measures including the revised stoning schedules.
In another crowd control move, pilgrims are not allowed to circumambulate the holy Ka’aba one hour before or after regular prayers at the Grand Mosque when they begin their Haj, Saudi Gazette and Arab News said.
This year’s pilgrimage begins on September 9 but hundreds of thousands have already arrived from around the world.
Haj is among the five pillars of Islam and every capable Muslim must perform it at least once in a lifetime.