Saudi Arabia boosts security to protect Hajj pilgrims after 2015's deadly stampede

Nearly twomillion Muslim pilgrims performed a symbolic stoning of thedevil on Monday, the riskiest part of the annual hajj pilgrimage,a year after the ritual's worst disaster in decades.

Saudi Arabia, which organizes theworld's largest annual Muslim gathering, has deployed thousandsof security forces, civil defence staff and volunteers as wellas modern technology, including drones and electronic bracelets, to ensure a safe pilgrimage.

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Last year, hundreds of pilgrims werekilled in a stampede when two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at acrossroads in Mina, a few kilometres east of Mecca, on their wayto performing the stoning ritual at Jamarat.

Counts by countries of repatriated bodies showed over 2,000people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians.

Saudi authorities have said that some 1.86 million Muslimsfrom around the world are performing the pilgrimage at Islam'sholiest city, one of the main pillars of Islam which everyable-bodied Muslim is required to undertake at least once.

That is less than previous years, when up to threemillionpilgrims have attended. Authorities say disruption caused byexpansion work and infrastucture projects in Mecca have combinedwith conflicts in the region to restrict the numbers.

Under close supervision from Saudi authorities, pilgrims inseamless white clothes, converged on Jamarat carrying thepebbles to perform the ritual from a three-storey bridge erectedto ease congestion.

In previous years, jostling to perform the stoning beforereturning to pray at the Grand Mosque accounted for many of thefrequent stampedes and crushes that had afflicted hajj.

"This year, they have organized the situation better," saidAbdel-Rahman Badr, an Egyptian pilgrim. "I feel happy to beconducting the hajj rituals," he added.

But another 60-year-old pilgrim, who identified himself asMohammed, said "more work was needed, especially to ensurecomfort for older pilgrims."

Grand Mufti misses sermon

King Salman was in Mina on Monday, the first day of the Eidal-Adha feast, to oversee implementation of the plan to avoidpotentially deadly congestion.

On Sunday, pilgrims prayed on Mount Arafat at the climax ofhajj. Prior to departing Mount Arafat back to Mina, they joinedtop Saudi officials in prayer at Namira Mosque, site of the lastsermon by Prophet Mohammad 14 centuries ago.

But, for the first time in more than 35 years the GrandMufti and the country's top religious authority, SheikhAbdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, did not deliver the main sermon.

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Instead, Saudi media said the imam and preacher of the GrandMosque in Mecca, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Sudais, delivered thesermon.

Saudi media have said that Al al-Sheikh had asked to berelieved from delivering the sermon due to poor health.

Last week he joined an escalating war of words with SaudiArabia's main regional rival Iran over the pilgrimage, when hesaid Iran's leaders were not Muslims in response to criticism byIranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over how it runsthe hajj after last year's crush.

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