Mina tragedy needs international investigation: Pundit

Press TV has conducted an interview with Liaqat Ali Khan, a professor at Washburn University in Kansas, to discuss the recent deadly crush during the Hajj rituals in which hundreds of people were killed near Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca.

What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How do you reflect approximately a week after this Mina tragic incident as to the Saudi reaction or lack of?

Khan: It is a very unfortunate tragedy but I think if you think about it, it is not a stampede because stampede occurs either when people are fleeing some tragedy like a fire or people are trying to acquire something like Walmart stampede in the United States.

I think what happened in Mecca was that the crowd density became too thick for some kind of reasons and therefore the crowd began to fall and once few people fall, then the tragedy begins to unfold.

So I think what the Saudis have done …, and first of all we need an international investigation for this tragedy. I do not think one country should investigate the whole matter. I was looking at the numbers. Five countries are severely affected by this tragedy and that would be Iran, Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia. I think these five countries and their experts should investigate into the causes of this tragedy and then the other question is whether the Saudi authorities were responsible for aggravating the situation after the tragedy has occurred and I think as your report was showing there seems to be some disregard of the people who were being killed or who have been killed in the tragedy by the Saudi authorities which is very unfortunate.

Press TV: I am wondering why is it that so many years after hosting an annual hajj pilgrimage the Saudis still have not really gotten a hold of it?

Khan: Well I think this is a very technical matter. Crowd psychology is not a political event. Crowd psychology needs very careful planning be experts and the crowd density and the crowd space and the crowd movement. These are all very technical matters and I think Saudi authorities should consult experts in order to manage the hajj crowds.

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