Manama: An Iraqi pilgrim who committed suicide at the Grand Mosque in Makkah on Friday had been suffering from health crisis from time to time, his family has said.
Hussain Hameed Al Haidari threw himself from the elevated Kaaba circumambulation area onto the courtyard where worshippers were circling the sacred edifice or praying at around 8:30am.
His family told an Iraqi news site that Al Haidari’s mother with whom he was performing Haj had to be shifted to a local hospital after learning about the suicide of her son.
“Al Haidari, from the Nahrowan area in Iraq, went to perform Haj with his mother. He is known to have a history of health issues,” a relative told Al Ghad Press in Iraq.
The relative did not say whether the mother was with him when he committed suicide.
A spokesman for the Iraqi Haj mission, Hassan Fahad Al Kanani, confirmed the identity of the dead man, saying that he was born in 1975. He said that the reasons for the suicide were not known.
The spokesman reported that other Iraqis staying in the same hotel as Al Haidari said that he had some health issues caused after the death of one of his sons some months ago.
Suicides at the Grand Mosque are very rare, especially that taking one’s life is strictly forbidden in Islam.
However, in June, a Bangladeshi man had committed suicide by jumping from the first floor of the Grand Mosque into the Kaaba circumambulation area.
He fell on a Sudanese man in his fifties who was praying, causing him serious fractures and injuries.
A 26-year-old Frenchman had also committed suicide at the Grand Mosque by jumping from the rooftop in June.
