Pilgrims stone Satan symbols for 2nd day

AFP/Makkah

Pilgrims pray at the Grand Mosque in Makkah yesterday

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims flooded a valley near the Saudi holy city of Mina yesterday to stone pillars representing Satan, on the penultimate day of the annual Haj. Pilgrims threw 21 stones on the three pillars that symbolise the devil, the last rite of the pilgrimage. In previous years, hundreds of people have been trampled to death in stampedes triggered by crowds trying to get close to the pillars. “This time the stone-throwing process was easy, not like years past,” said 33-year-old Calazar Shah, a Pakistani pilgrim on his second Haj journey. To complete the ritual, pilgrims must throw seven pebbles at each of three 25m pillars on the first day of the three-day Eid al-Adha feast marking the end of the Haj, and another seven on each of the last two days. Pilgrims then make their way to Makkah’s Grand Mosque for a “farewell visit” to the Kaaba. Today is the third and final day of the stoning ritual and once complete, will mark the end of the Haj. Saudi authorities have installed a multi-level walkway through the stone-throwing site in a bid to avoid the trampling that caused the deaths of 364 people in 2006, 251 in 2004 and 1,426 in 1990. So far, no major incidents have been reported among the pilgrims, who the Saudi statistics office said numbered 2.93mn this year. The figure includes 1.83mn foreigners. In a message to the pilgrims posted on the website of Saudi state news agency SPA yesterday, King Abdullah said the Haj promotes “unity and solidarity” among Muslims, and urged the world’s Muslim nations to “overcome division and discord”. In a separate speech read out by Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz on behalf of King Abdullah, the monarch said the “Islamic nation is passing through continuous challenges that demand our appreciation of future dangers”. “We must recognise that divisions ... lead to chaos and weakness that will only benefit the enemies of the (Islamic) nation,” he said in an apparent reference to the Arab Spring revolts that have so far led to the fall of long-time leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. “I appeal ... to the leaders and Muslim people to assume their historic responsibility ... We must choose the path of unity ... not chaos,” he said.