Indian volunteer loses life while saving others

An Indian expatriate engineer died in Thursday’s stampede in Mina while serving the pilgrims. Niyazul Haq Mansoori, from the northern Indian state of Jharkhand, came from Yanbu to join the 950-member volunteer team of India Fraternity Forum (IFF), reports Saudi Gazette.  

Mansoori’s father and mother are also missing following the tragedy while his sister who accompanied them in Hajj escaped miraculously.

He was a mechanical engineer at a private company in Yanbu, and he is survived by his wife and three daughters.

It was IFF volunteers who identified the body of Mansoori, wearing the jacket and ID of IFF, while they were assisting the security personnel and the rescue team in removing dead bodies from the stampede scene, and transfer the injured pilgrims to hospitals, Abdul Ghani, who is in charge of IFF’s Hajj Service Operation, told Saudi Gazette.

“Mansoori, who joined our team in Mina at 2am. Thursday, was engaged in serving the pilgrims on Street 204 where the tragedy occurred as the heavy influx of pilgrims to and from between the Jamarat and the tents to perform the first day’s ritual of stoning turned into overcrowding and ended up in a stampede.”

Abdul Ghani said Mansoori’s body has been moved to the mortuary and necessary formalities for burial in Makkah are being processed by IFF members along with his younger brother who came from Yanbu.

Search is underway to locate the missing father and mother. They came for Haj along with their daughter.

Jasfar Muzhappilangad, another IFF volunteer, was one among those who were allowed to take part in the rescue operation immediately after the stampede. “The security forces allowed the volunteers in their uniform to assist in rescue operation and hence we helped moving scores of dead bodies and helping to take the injured to nearby hospitals,” he said.

“The Saudi authorities’ quick rescue operation helped many injured pilgrims from death. Spraying of water by tankers immediately after the tragedy was a great relief for many pilgrims who suffered fatigue and exhaustion due to extreme heat and sunstroke,” he said.