JEDDAH, 19 December 2005 — As of Saturday night, there had been eleven deaths among Indian Haj pilgrims, according to Dr. Suhel Ajaz Khan, Consul (Haj & HOC). Two of the eleven died in the Holy Mosques.
Khan said that one pilgrim, Elayedath Mohammad of Malapuram in Kerala, who came to the Kingdom with a private tour operator, died while performing “saey” (running between the Safa and Marwa hillocks). He was 68 years old, and died of cardiac arrest due to acute myocardial infarction. Another pilgrim — Khabiruddin Ahmed, 65, of Dinajpur district in West Bengal — died in the Prophet’s Mosque also of acute myocardial infarction.
Among the dead was a doctor from Hyderabad, Dr. Mohammad A. Waheed, 60, who died in Makkah of shock due to septicemia secondary to chronic renal failure, diabetes mellitus, cardiac ischemia and hypertension. Khan said Dr. Waheed had undergone dialysis three times in Madinah and once in Makkah.
Of the 11 dead, 10 are men and one woman. Nine of them came with the Central Haj Committee and the other two through private tour operators.
The oldest death was 80-year-old Zahoorul Haque, of Siwan district in Bihar, who died in Madinah of acute myocardial infarction. The next oldest was 76-year-old Jayanal Abedin, of Murshidabad in West Bengal, who died of cardio respiratory arrest, also in Madinah.
The youngest to die was Shakeer Mustafa of Kannoor in Kerala. He was 43 and died in Madinah of acute myocardial infarction.
The only woman among the dead was Khairunnisha Sultan, 71, of Kandharwari in Rajasthan. She also died in Madinah of acute myocardial infarction.
The other deaths were: Hatam Dar, 68, of Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, who died in Madinah of respiratory failure due to pulmonary tuberculosis; Subhan Khan Usmani, 61, of Agra, who died of acute myocardial infarction in Madinah; Abdullah Kuttyvaliyakath, 68, of Kerala, who died of a cerebrovascular accident in Makkah and A.B. Aziz, 52, of Kozhikode, Kerala who died in Madinah of acute myocardial infarction.
Khan said that 44,701 pilgrims had arrived up to yesterday.
