Deadly stampede in India leaves over 100 dead

Stampede at a religious gathering in India has left not less than 100 people dead with most of them being women.

The stampede happened in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh where many had gathered for a satsang (a Hindu religious festival) in Hathras district on Tuesday, where a self-styled man of God called Bhole Baba held a religious gathering.

According to the police, the event was massively overcrowded as the number of people present at the venue was greater than the permitted limit and most of those who died or were injured were women.

Authorities had permitted for 80,000 people to gather but around 250,000 people attended the event, according to the first information report (FIR) lodged by the police, the BBC reported.

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The BBC reported that chaos broke out at the end of the event as the preacher was about to leave in his car then thousands of devotees ran towards his vehicle and began collecting dust from the path in an act of devotion.
As crowds swelled, several of those sitting and squatting on the ground got crushed.

Police also added that some people tried running to a patch of mud-filled fields across the road, but were forcibly stopped by the organizers and were crushed.

Police have registered a case against a man who they say was the event’s main organiser and a few others on several charges, including culpable homicide.

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Family members of those who were involved in the incident have gone to hospitals surrounding the location to identify their loved ones.

Bunty, who uses only one name and comes from the state’s Aligarh district, said he was devastated at the loss of his mother. He saw her body lying outside a hospital on a news channel on Tuesday evening.

“But when I went there, I could not find my mother and have since been trying to locate her body,” he told BBC Hindi.

Others expressed anger over the incident.

Ritesh Kumar, whose 28-year-old wife was among those killed, said his life had been upended.

“My family has been destroyed. The government should see to it that we get justice,” he said.