Claim: A video shows the bodies of pilgrims who died during Hajj in 2024.
Fact: The claim is misleading. The video is old and shows those who died during Hajj in 2019.
On 21 June 2024, a Facebook user posted a video (archive) with the caption,
حج کے دوران شدید گرمی کے باعث انتقال کر جانے والے حاجیوں کہ جنازے اخری ارام گاہ کی طرف جاتے ہوئے
تمام حجاج کرام کی میتوں کو مکہ مکرمہ کے قبرستان میں ہی دفن کیا جائے گا۔
[Pilgrims who died due to extreme heat during Hajj, while going to the final resting place. The dead bodies of all pilgrims will be buried in the Makkah cemetery.]
The video shows bodies inside coffins, shrouded in white. It was shared after more than 1300 people were reported dead due to extreme heat during Hajj this year.
According to BBC News Urdu, Pilgrims in Makkah had to walk long distances in extremely hot weather this year as temperatures soared to 50 degrees Celsius. A majority of those who died were among the unregistered pilgrims who did not have access to shelter and water, reported Human Rights Watch.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse image search on the keyframes of the video and found an article from August 2019. Published by an Arabic news website, Iltwa, the article’s headline describes the tragedy during Hajj in 2019. When translated from Arabic into English, the title says, “In a scene full of sadness. 58 funerals were held in the Grand Mosque, including pilgrims who died wearing their Ihram clothes”.
The video from the viral claim is included in the article. It shows “a procession of cars carrying the bodies of the deceased, while some video users said that some of the deceased pilgrims died wearing their ihram clothes”, according to its description.
Soch Fact Check also found that RT Arabic had reported on the tragedy on 17 August 2019 and reiterated that the funeral prayers of 58 people were carried out, including those who wore their Ihram clothes and died during the pilgrimage.
According to a Bangladesh news website, The Daily Star, a total of 88 people died during the 2019 Hajj due to different reasons.
This is not the first time that false claims about deaths at the annual Muslim pilgrimage have surfaced online. Previously in 2023, Soch Fact Check debunked similar misinformation about an image which falsely claimed to show the bodies of 13 people who died during 2023 Hajj.
Virality
On Facebook, the old video was shared here (archive), here (archive), and here.
It was also shared here on Instagram, and here and here on YouTube.
Conclusion: A video showing the bodies of Hajj pilgrims in Ihram is not from 2024. The video is old and shows pilgrims who died during Hajj in 2019.
Background image in cover photo:
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