REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JEDDAH -- Some 38 Indonesian hajj pilgrims remain missing since the Mina tragic stampede on Sept. 24, according to the Indonesian Hajj Pilgrimage Management for Mecca Region Arsyad Hidayat.
The number of missing pilgrims decreased from 74, following the discoveries of 32 bodies identified as Indonesians, including one Indonesian citizen who resettled in Saudi Arabia, Hidayat said here on Friday.
Three Indonesian hajj pilgrims, who had been reported as missing, have since been found up at their hostels.
He said he hoped that the Indonesian Police Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team that arrived in Saudi Arabia could help speed the identification of missing Indonesian pilgrims.
The Saudis have released some 2,000 pictures of dead victims of the Mina tragedy.
The death toll among Indonesian Hajj pilgrims in the Mina stampede incident rose to 91 from 59 following the identification of 32 more bodies.
Three more Indonesians were injured in the stampede.
This year, the Indonesian government sent as many as 168.8 thousand Hajj pilgrims to the Muslim holy lands of Mecca and Madinah.
In the meantime, Al Jazeera reported that at least 717 people were killed in the stampede during the annual Hajj pilgrimage, Saudi Arabia's civil defence directorate affirmed, as the death toll continues to rise.
The directorate stated that some 863 other pilgrims were injured in Thursday's stampede, which took place in Mina on the outskirts of the holy city of Mecca.
The injured have been evacuated to four hospitals in the Mina region, according to a civil defense spokesman.
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