Monday, January 16 2006 09:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Dubai: With one more pilgrim succumbing to injuries late yesterday (Jan 15,2006) night, the number of Indians died in last Thursday's stampede in the holy city of Mina of Saudi Arabia rose to 52.

While the condition of one of the four injured was critical, at least two pilgrims remained missing and efforts were on to trace them, Indian Consul General Ausaf Sayeed said yesterday.

Meanwhile, the pilgrims will start their return journey to India from today and a total of nine flights will operate to ferry 2500 of them during the day.

Air India will operate four flights while Saudi Arabian Airlines will operate five, the first flight being the Air India service to Srinagar, Sayeed said adding that two Saudi Airlines will leave for New Delhi later in in the day.

Saudi Airlines will also operate one flight each to Ahmedabad, Chennai and Hyderabad while Air India will carry passengers to Jaipur, Kolkata and Kozhikode.

Sayeed said information regarding the deaths of the pilgrims has been already conveyed to their immediate relatives and the Mission has already issued 39 No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) to the next of the kin of the deceased to facilitate burial in Mecca.

The burial process continued today and all the burials are expected to be completed in the next 3-4 days after completion of formalities by Saudi authorities, he said.

Among the dead, Uttar Pradesh accounted for the maximum number of dead with 24 followed by Andhra Pradesh (6), Kerala (5) and Maharashtra (5).

Atleast four Gujaratis lost their lives in the tragedy while three from Madhya Pradesh, two from Rajasthan and one each from West Bengal and Chattisgarh died in the stampede.

Addresses of one could not be assertained, he said.

Four couples, three from Uttar Pradesh and one from Kerala, perished in the tragedy. The couple from Ambedkar Nagar of UP was the youngest couple while two other couples were from Sultanpur of UP. The couple from Kerala belonged to Palakkad.

The oldest among the dead was 75-year-old Khatoom Begum of Jaipur while the youngest were 16-year-old Sheerin Bano from Ahmedabad and 19-year-old Mahmoodha Bee of Dhule (Maharashtra). Fourty two of the dead, including 25 women, had gone for the pilgrimage through the Haj Committee of India and four through private operators.

Out of 363 dead, 213 have been already identified and the dead included pilgrims from Pakistan, Egypt, Algeria, Oman, Jordan, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Sudan, Maldives, China, Morocco, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Germany, Turkmenistan, Chad, Belgium, Nigeria, Palestine and Ghana besides Saudi Arabia.

Saudi authorities identified the dead pilgrims through their bracelets and with the help of their relatives.