Biggest such tragedy since Jodhpur stampede in 2008
Hathras, July 02 (PTI): A stampede at a religious congregation here killed 116 people on Tuesday as devotees suffocated to their deaths and bodies piled atop each other in the worst such tragedy in recent years.
This is the highest number of casualties in a stampede at temples or other religious gatherings in the last 16 years. Nearly 250 devotees were killed and over 60 injured in a stampede triggered by rumours of a bomb going off at Chamunda Devi temple in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur city in September 2008.
Tuesday’s stampede took place as people headed home after a ‘satsang’ in the district’s Phulrai village, conducted by a preacher known as Bhole Baba.
Twenty-seven bodies were brought to a hospital in the neighbouring Etah district. Senior Superintendent of Police Rajesh Kumar Singh said 23 of them were women. And 89 lay dead in Hathras itself.
Aligarh Range Inspector General of Police Shalabh Mathur put the death toll at 116.
Victims, dead or unconscious, were brought to the Sikandara Rao Trauma Centre in trucks and ‘tempos’. The bodies lay scattered outside the health centre as people milled around them.
One video clip showed a woman crying, sitting amid five or six bodies in a truck. Another showed a man and a woman lifeless in another vehicle.
Clips before the stampede showed people in a large ‘shamiana’ listening to Bhole Baba. The baba sat before them on a throne-like chair.
District Magistrate Ashish Kumar said the satsang was a private function for which the sub-divisional magistrate had granted permission. The local administration provided security outside the venue while the arrangements inside were made by organisers, he added.
Eyewitness Shakuntala Devi told that the stampede took place while people were leaving the venue after the ‘satsang’, which was a day-long affair. People fell atop each other, she said, and then the bodies were pulled out.
According to Sikandra Rao sub divisional magistrate Ravendra Kumar, the stampede took place when devotees tried to get a glimpse of Bhole Baba as the event ended. They also wanted to collect some soil from around the baba’s feet, he said.
Satsang participant Sonu Kumar blamed the slippery ground for the stampede.
“When Guru ji left the place after almost one and half hours, all of a sudden devotees ran behind him to touch his feet,” he said. When they turned back, some slipped.
Sikandra Rao police station SHO Ashish Kumar blamed “overcrowding” at the ‘satsang’.
Another eyewitness, who left the place before the ‘satsang’ ended, said the arrangements were not adequate, given the number of devotees.
Agra’s additional director general of police and Aligarh divisional commissioner are part of a team that would probe the incident, the state government said. The team has been asked to give its report in 24 hours.
Amid his reply to a two-day debate in Parliament on the motion of thanks on the President’s address to both Houses of Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the deaths.
“In the midst of discussions, I have also been given sad news. It has come to my attention that there have been many tragic deaths in the stampede in Hathras, UP,” he said in the Lok Sabha.
The prime minister said senior officials of the central government are in constant contact with the Uttar Pradesh administration to coordinate aid efforts.
On social media, President Droupadi Murmu said the news was heart-rending. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge expressed sadness.
An FIR will be registered against the organisers of the event, a state government statement said.
The Prime Minister’s Office announced an ex-gratia compensation of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for the next of kin of each person killed in the stampede. The injured would be given Rs 50,000.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made a similar announcement.
He said state ministers Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary and Sandeep Singh were headed for Hathras. The chief secretary and the state police chief too were directed to reach the spot.
