Royal Dispute, Mina Tragedy & Release of Mr. Zaid Hamid

“And pilgrimage to the House is a duty of mankind towards Allah, for him who is able to make his way to it. As for him who disbelieves, (let him know that) surely Allah is independent of the worlds.”

(Holy Quran Al-Imran, 3:97)

Hazrat Umm Salma (RA) narrated: The Prophet (PBUH) said:

“Disagreement will occur upon the death of a Caliph and a man of the people of Medina will flee to Mecca. Some of the people of Mecca will come to him, bring him out against his will and make him accept their oath at the Kaaba.

An army from the people of Syria will then be sent against him, but Khusf (land collapse) will happen to them (they will die) in the desert between Mecca and Medina. When the people see this, pious individuals of the people of Iraq will come to him and offer him oath and accept his leadership.

A man from Quraish tribe, whose maternal uncles are from Kalb tribe, will arise and send against them an army which they will overcome. He (the Mahdi) will divide (distribute) money (wealth), and will govern the people according to the Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) and establish Islam on Earth. He will remain seven years, then die, and the Muslims will pray over him.”

(Narrated by Abu Dawud)

Introduction

This article will highlight the following points:

  • Differences within the Saudi Royal Family
  • The various unfortunate incidents during Hajj 2015
  • Mina Tragedy: The probable causes
  • Mass Graves & Missing Persons
  • Prince calls for removal of King
  • The Untold Compensation given by Saudi Government
  • PEMRA told media channels to keep their mouths shut
  • Release of Mr. Zaid Hamid

Differences within the Saudi Royal Family

With the death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and the arrival of his half-brother Salman as the new king, two princes with fierce competition and unconventional assumed original Saudi government responsibility:

  1. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdul Aziz first prince and interior minister.
  2. Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, son of the King of Saudi, second crown prince and defense minister.

Intense competition between the two princes related to the future of the people and the government of Saudi Arabia is the main source of strange happenings these days.

Bahrain protesters take over and suppress Shiites East of Saudi Arabia led by Mohammed bin Nayef and the Saudi-Yemen war led by Muhammad bin Salman. In addition to other responsibilities, the competition between these two princes into hostility and conflict is serious.

‘Formation of a secret investigation about the mistakes and errors of Yemen War Office by Mohammed bin Nayef.’

‘Mohammed bin Salman tried to mistrust the authorities and the actions of the King of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef,’

For showing weakness in the government responsible for the Hajj, the interior minister, Mohammed bin Nayef, would be a good reason to remove him from the government in Saudi Arabia.

Thus there may have been a plan to deliberately cause mishaps in this year’s Hajj and blame it on the interior minister, so that he can be removed from office

The Various Unfortunate Incidents during Hajj 2015

Crane crash at the Al-haram Mosque

Although claimed to be an act of God, there were plenty of reasons how it could have been prevented as mentioned in this blog:

http://www.wired.com/2015/09/foul-weather-physics-can-turn-crane-tragedy

MECCA, SAUDI ARABIA – SEPTEMBER 11: At least 52 worshippers are killed and others injured when storms caused a crane to fall in Mecca’s Grand Mosque on Friday, September 11, 2015. Millions of Muslim converge on Mecca to perform the sacred pilgrimage. A huge construction crane buffeted by strong winds collapsed and crashed through the roof of the Grand Mosque in Mecca Friday, the Saudi Arabia Civil Defense reports. Search and rescue teams and medical workers from the Saudi Red Crescent have been sent to the scene.

There were just too many (deliberate?) mistakes committed as mentioned in the article.

A fire in a Makkah hotel  

A fire forced some 1,500 people from their hotel in Makkah. Four Yemeni pilgrims sustained minor injuries following the pre-dawn fire in a 15-storey hotel. A preliminary investigation found a short circuit in a room to have caused the fire.

Was this short circuit deliberate?

Fans fall in Safa and Marwa

There were reports of rotating wall fans falling at Safa and Marwah, the two mountains between which pilgrims make 7 rounds during the Hajj. No further details of the event including injuries etc

Mina tragedy

The worst catastrophe in 25 years at the yearly Muslim journey happened amid the typical stoning at Mina, simply outside the sacred city of Makkah. No less than 717 individuals were executed and 863 individuals were injured according to initial reports. Actual number of the dead may be as high as around 4500-5000.

All these incidents could justify public opinion to remove Prince Nayef from his office. 

Mina Tragedy: The probable causes

Caused by Saudi Prince Salman

Citing a report published in a Lebanese daily, Press TV claims the convoy of Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud played a central role in the deadly crush on the third day of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

Report claims Prince Salman was accompanied by a huge entourage, including 200 army and 150 police officers, which prompted officials to change the movement of pilgrims.

It further said the prince and his entourage swiftly abandoned the scene, adding that the Saudi authorities seek to cover up the entire story and impose a media blackout on Salman’s presence in the area.

Arabic newspaper al-Diyar claimed deputy crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud’s convoy had exacerbated overcrowding after busy thorough fares were shut to allow his security detail through en route to the prince’s meeting with his father.

The report claimed one-traffic was reversed to allow the prince’s 350-odd security staff through, panicking the crowd and ultimately leading to the stampede.

A witness said “It is the fault of the Saudi government because any time a prince comes along, they close the roads, they don’t think about the disaster waiting to happen.”

“If those two spacious roads had not been closed, this tragedy may never have happened” 

Similar allegations were first reported in Arabic news agencies, who claimed to have spoken to sources present at the stampede, on Thursday.

“There was crowding. The police had closed all entrances and exits to the pilgrims’ camp, leaving only one,” said Ahmed Abu Bakr, a 45-year-old Libyan who escaped the stampede with his mother.

He added that police at the scene appeared inexperienced. “They don’t even know the roads and the places around here,” he said as others nodded in agreement.

“You just find soldiers gathered in one place doing nothing,” he said.

Police were not appropriately prepared and did not have the dialect abilities for speaking with outside explorers, who make up the larger part of those on the Haj.

“They haven’t the foggiest how to connect with these individuals,”

Was this done by Prince Salman on purpose in order to find an excuse to remove Prince

Nayef?

Just imagine, they close all the gates except one, prince comes in for throwing stones at devil, diverting all stone throwers to one direction. From that same direction another wave of pilgrims is coming for stone throwing. The two groups clash, try to find alternate routes but gates have been closed and stampede results. This has been reported by many witnesses including a story in Express Tribune Pakistan.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/963296/a-stampede-survivors-tale-i-was-pinned-down/

Stone Throwing is NOT a compulsory ritual (Farz) of Hajj

One can also question that when stone throwing at the devil is NOT a compulsory ritual of Hajj, so why did the prince take the risk of doing so at the peril of so many pilgrims unless he was deliberately looking for disaster?

Caused by King Salman?

A British Hajj tour operator advisor claimed on Friday a stampede that killed hundreds outside Mecca was caused by the Saudi king’s decision to close already overcrowded roads.

Mohammed Jafari, an adviser to a British Hajj tour operator, said the deaths were “the fault of the Saudi government” because “every time a Prince comes along” they closed the roads and fail to consider “the disaster waiting to happen.”

The Hajj stampede, believed to have originated at a crossroads between Streets 202 and 223 in the Mecca neighborhood of Mina, is the deadliest in 25 years.

“Talking to pilgrims on the ground yesterday, the main reason for this accident was that the king, in his palace in Mina, was receiving dignitaries and for this reason they closed two entrances to where the stoning happened … these were the two roads where people were not able to proceed,” Mr Jafari, an adviser to Haj and Umrah Travel, the UK’s first Hajj tour operator, told the BBC’s Today Programme.

Further Deliberate Negligence

The eyewitness reports indicate the deliberate and serious negligence of Saudi aid workers on site after the stampede to deliver medical services and that caused the mounting of the number of victims to 5000 people.

The eyewitnesses believe although the stampede happened at 8 in the morning and aid workers were present at the site, they deliberately started serving the victims at 12 in the noon. The delay certainly played a pivot role in mounting death toll to 5000 people.

Saudi officials have always asserted their vigilance in serving the Hajis but the eyewitness reports from Mina proves the catastrophe wasn’t an incident but a controlled crime.

 Mass Graves & Missing Persons

Mohammed Bin Nayef, the Saudi interior minister, ordered to bury the Mina victims in mass graves claiming the dead bodies were unidentifiable.

BBC reporter given access to the site of the stampede fears the death toll may exceed 4,000. This is at least four times the officially acknowledged number.

No wonder many pilgrims are reported missing. It has been 10 days since the horrendous stampede in Mina during Hajj and still 97 Pakistanis remain “missing” as per the figures of the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

(http://tribune.com.pk/story/966750/missing-in-inaction/_)

http://tribune.com.pk/story/963537/no-sign-pilgrims-from-mina-stampede-remain-missing/

A Saudi analyst said on the condition of anonymity for the fear of his life that the two stampede and crane crash incidents were the result of rivalries between a part of the Saudi police and security service and Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud to display that the Saudi king and crown prince are incompetent and unable to handle the Hajj ceremony. Both are trying to lay the blame on each other.

Rivalries are tough and deep among different royal families who are all descendant of the Al-Saud and see themselves entitled to the throne.

 Calls for Removal of King Salman

In an unprecedented move, one of the grandsons of the state’s founder, Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, has called for the removal of the kingdom’s ruler, King Salman bin Abdulaziz.

Citing unrest among the royal family, plummeting oil prices and criticism of Saudi’s management of Makkah days after a stampede during Hajj claimed 1,100 lives, the prince who cannot be named owing to security reasons said there was a need for a change in leadership.

“The king is not in a stable condition and in reality the son of the king (Mohammed bin Salman) is ruling the kingdom,” the prince said, while speaking to the Guardian.

He wrote two letters earlier this month calling for the king to be removed. “So four or possibly five of my uncles will meet soon to discuss the letters. They are making a plan with a lot of nephews and that will open the door. A lot of the second generation is very anxious.”

The letters from the unnamed prince call on the 13 surviving sons of Ibn Saud – specifically the princes Talal, Turki and Ahmed bin Abdulaziz – to unite and remove the leadership in a palace coup, before choosing a new government from within the royal family.

The prince explained a double tragedy in Makkah – the collapse of a crane that killed more than 100, followed by a stampede last week that killed 1,100 – has raised questions not just about social issues, but also about royal stewardship of the holiest site in Islam.

“The public are also pushing this very hard, all kinds of people, tribal leaders,” the prince added. “They say you have to do this or the country will go to disaster.”

We can clearly see here the Mina tragedy is being made as an excuse to remove the King.

The Untold Compensation given by Saudi Government

According to well-informed Saudi sources, The Saudi ambassadors in Islamabad and Ankara have informed the Pakistani and Turkish officials respectively that the oil-rich kingdom would pay for each victim of last Thursday’s deadly crush in Mecca a sum of 10 million Saudi Riyal (equivalent to 270.000 USD) if the two countries refrain from criticizing Riyadh’s utter mismanagement of the crisis, directly causing such a poignant catastrophe.

The Turkish administration of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed Saudi Arabia for the Hajj debacle during the very first days of the tragic disaster, though it wasn’t long before receiving financial guarantees —Riyadh promised to pay a large sum of “hush-money” for every dead Turkish pilgrim— that Ankara ceased condemning Saudi Arabia.

Intelligence reports also say that those Pakistani officials received a same proposal in exchange of Islam Abad’s complete silence and even international support for Saudi Sheikhs.

The Saudi government promised victims’ countries that it will pay a sum of 1 million Saudi Riyals for every deceased pilgrim.

PEMRA Orders Media Channels to Keep their Mouths Shut

Surprise, surprise, all of a sudden  the government asks Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Wednesday to take notice of talk shows and broadcasts discussing the Mina tragedy and criticizing the Saudi handling of the crisis.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1210153

This must have been after the government received the compensation from the Saudi Authorities. After all PEMRA is not noted to be banning many programs which ought to be banned, so why the ban now? It is most likely because government has received the promised compensation from Saudi government.

Release of Mr. Zaid Hamid

I believe the timing of the sudden release of Pakistani security analyst Mr. Zaid Hamid from detention in a Saudi jail, is also a part of the deal of Saudi Authorities and Pakistan government (with help of military officials) for keeping quiet over the involvement of Saudi government in the Mina tragedy.

And Allah knows best

End Notes

  1. I believe such skirmishes between the princes will continue until the foretold prophecy of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) takes place and Imam Mehdi appears. Everything seems to be falling in place for the final battle Armageddon or Malhama:

The Countdown to Malhama (Armageddon, World War 3) & After

2. If royal disputes continue at this rate, a second prophecy may also come true very soon  too concerning the abandonment of Hajj mentioned here:

Gog and Magog (Yajuj and Majuj) of Yesterday and Today

3. To see other examples of how most Saudi elite value human lives, read here:

Human Rights Violations in Saudi Arabia

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