Stampede at Maha Kumbh religious festival in India kills 30

Wed 29th Jan, 2025

A crowd crush at the Maha Kumbh Mela in the Indian city of Prayagraj claimed 30 lives as a surge in pilgrims gathered at the confluence of rivers Ganga and Yamuna went out of control, reports said. While the provincial and federal governments belonging to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP were quick to issue statements to maintain order and condole the dead, opposition parties' clamour to fix responsibility for the tragedy often saw the ruling dispensation on the back foot. Prayagraj is situated in the province of Uttar Pradesh, which is headed by BJP's Yogi Adityanath as the chief minister.

About 100 million people were expected to take a dip on January 29 at the world's largest religious gathering, which has drawn attention due to its size and vaunted crowd control measures by the local administration that has now come in for criticism. Mauni Amavasya, the date considered auspicious in the Hindu calendar, is believed to absolve those taking a dip in the Sangam (river confluence) of their sins.

According to police, the stampede was triggered by a metal barrier giving away as cops tried to hold back a surging mass of humanity around 1 am India time. (GMT +5.30). An anxious pilgrim, who identified himself as Digambar, said that his family was unharmed though he was left slightly injured in the melee that followed the stampede. "God has shielded my family as my wife and two kids crawled out under the bamboo barriers built to manage crowds," he added.

Sixty people were injured in the crush, police said later in the evening.

Amit Sharma, who travelled about a 1000km from the eastern state of Jharkhand to reach Prayagraj just a few hours after the tragedy, said things were apparently back to normal by Wednesday evening. "I heard about the stampede and came to know that there have been deaths and many people have also been injured. However, the situation at the festival seems to be under complete control. We took the holy dip in the afternoon and felt satisfied."

The provincial government has ordered a judicial probe into the incident and decided to hand out Rs2.5 million to the next of kin of each of the deceased. Opposition parties have ripped into the government over the tragedy and blamed laxity of the festival administration for the deaths and injuries. Leader of opposition and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi blamed mismanagement and administrative laxity for the tragedy. Alluding to VIPs getting preference at the event, he sought better facilities for ordinary pilgrims at the Maha Kumbh, while coming down hard on the ruling dispensation.

The Maha Kumbh festival, which takes place every 12 years, began on January 13 and ends on February 26.


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