A relative of a stampede victim, cries as she sits next to an ambulance, outside a hospital mortuary, following a stampede that occurred before the second shahi snaan at Prayagraj.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Lucknow: Devotees from different parts of the country, who had arrived for holy dip at the Sangam on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya recounted the horrors of the stampede at the Mahakumbh on Wednesday in which 30 people were killed and dozens others injured.
Blankets, sandals, shoes and other luggage littered on the roads leading to the Sangam and the wails of those who lost their near and dear ones at the Mela amid the blaring sirens of the ambulances carrying the dead and the injured to the hospitals pierced the chilly night.
Many devotees complained that the arrangements at the Mahakumbh were not proper nor was there any crowd management in place. ‘’Those going for the bath and those returning after taking the bath were using the same path ... .there should have been separate entry and exit roads,’’ said a woman devotee from Madhya Pradesh.
Mahendra Kumar Singh, another devotee said that the devotees were allowed to use only a couple of the pontoon bridges which also resulted in the melee.
Visuals that appeared on the social media platforms showed the devotees crying and blaming the administration for the tragedy.
Many devotees, whose near and dear ones were missing after the tragedy, were seen making rounds of the hospitals and the ‘khoya-paya’ (lost and found) centre to know their whereabouts.
‘’I can’t find my father-in-law…no one is giving me any information about him,’’ said a devotee from UP. Ranjieet Prasad, a resident of Bihar said that his father was missing after the tragedy.
The saints and seers also slammed the officials for not making proper arrangements to tackle the huge crowd of devotees who were expected to throng Mahakumbh on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya.