New Delhi, June 3: After more than 120 people were killed in a stampede at a religious demonstration in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, police are investigating why the local government and event organizers failed to comply with basic protocols to protect the large crowd. , given similar tragedies in the past.
Among the victims was Priyanka, 20, from the village of Kasganj, who attended satsang, a type of devout Hindu gathering, in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh (UP) with her family on Tuesday.
“She stomped when we were trying to leave the satsang. We took her to the hospital but she died,” Ramsev, Priyanka’s father, told This Week in Asia.
Authorities say at least another 121 people were trampled to death during Tuesday’s collection after devotees rushed to get a blessing from Narayan Sakar Hari, the guru popularly known as Bhole Baba who organized the event.
Authorities estimate that about 250,000 more people attended the satsang, exceeding the 80,000 allowed by the event’s authorization. The police have filed a complaint against the organizers.
Chaitra V, divisional commissioner of Aligarh city in UP, also attributed the tragedy to a dust typhoon that broke out at the end of the event, blinding the vision of the participants and causing a riot that followed the stampede.
Deadly stampede crushes 116 Indians, mostly women, at Hindu rally
Before the incident, videos showed other people gathered in a giant tent, listening to Hari sitting in a chair on a pedestal in front of them.
Ramsev said his family visits Baba’s religious gatherings over the years.
“I never imagined something like this would happen to my family,” Ramsev said, still shocked after completing his daughter’s cremation.
Photos showing dozens of bodies lying on blocks of ice inside a hospital in Hathras, with grieving relatives waiting outside to take their bodies home, paint a grim picture of the incident.
While many hoped to recover the bodies of their family members, some were still searching for their missing loved ones well into the night.
According to official figures, of the 121 deaths registered, seven of those affected were young people and one a man. All the others affected were women.
Who is “Bhole Baba”?
Suraj Pal Singh, also known as Bhole Baba, was born into a farming family in the village of Bahadur Nagari in UP. He served as a police leader for the state police intelligence unit for more than 18 years.
In 1999, he retired, replaced his call to Narayan Saakar Hari and began organizing devotional gatherings, raising a call for spirituality and global peace.
As his popularity grew, other people called him Bhole Baba. In addition to UP, it also has a large following in the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Hari has faced other controversies similar to the safety of his followers. According to media reports, in 2022 he organized a religious collection in Farrukhabad, UP, despite emerging Covid cases. Although only 50 participants were allowed, more than 50,000 people showed up, causing significant traffic jams.
Hari is a self-proclaimed “god-man,” a kind of charismatic guru who is respected as the equivalent of the deities. Over the years, many of them participated in criminal acts that led to their imprisonment, including Asaram Bapu, Ram Rahim and Ashu Maharaj.
The organizers accused
Religious gatherings in India have been the scene of fatal incidents due to poor crowd control and protection violations.
As news of Tuesday’s tragic incident spreads, observers are wondering how the event was organized, including venue layout, ventilation, crowd measures, emergency access and exit points, and the ambulance availability.
A petition for Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has also been filed with the Supreme Court, requesting the formation of a high-level committee, under the supervision of a retired Supreme Court justice, to investigate the incident.
“In the past, we have witnessed such incidents,” Vishal Tiwari, the lawyer who filed the asylum claim, told the Press Trust of India. “But the government and the government have learned lessons from those incidents. “
A similar incident occurred at the Maha Pushkaralu festival on July 14, 2015, in which another 27 people were killed and dozens injured in a stampede at the Godavari river in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The incident occurred as tens of thousands of pilgrims rushed to shower in the river on the first day of the festival.
The PIL requests situation reports from all state governments, including Uttar Pradesh, related to incidents beyond stampedes and suggested the court collect information on measures taken and long-term precautions. The petitioner also requested that rules be established for organizing such functions.
UP senior lawyer Madhuvan Dutt told This Week in Asia that to hold a giant collection like Tuesday’s, the organizers want to get permission from four departments.
“According to the guidelines, it is necessary to download the authorization certificate from the pollutant office, fire department, police, and local administration. Only then will a subdivisional justice of the peace be able to give him the consistent mission of holding such gigantic meetings,” Dutt said.
“However, the organizers get away with [violating] those rules, either by influencing the direction or bribing officials. “
“When it comes to a devotional gathering, the government does not control all the parameters as it is a faith-related issue,” Dutt said.
The police have filed a complaint against a close collaborator of the so-called god and the organizers of the event. However, the initial police report did mention Hari as one of the accused.
Instead, the report alleges that the organisers misrepresented the actual number of devotees attending the satsang when seeking permission, failed to cooperate with traffic management and concealed evidence after the stampede.
It also states that the crowd that rushed to catch up with Hari after his sermon “was forcibly stopped through the organizing committee with sticks, which increased the crowd pressure and crushed women, young people and men. “
The justice of the peace of the Hathras subdivision, Sikandra Rao, in his report explaining the reason for the stampede, wrote that other people began running towards Hari after he left the scene to seek his blessing and that his personal safety “pushed other people and they fell. “
“The crowd was scared and scared. To relieve themselves, other people ran to the nearby open box where several other people slid down a slope and began crushing them. “
Many senior police officials visited the site of the Hathras stampede to gather evidence of the incident, while others visited Hari’s ashram, Ram Kutir Charitable Trust, a hundred kilometers from the site of the incident.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also set up a committee to investigate the incident and announced that Rs 200,000 ($2,400) would be paid to the families of those affected and Rs 50,000 to the injured.
Akhilesh Yadav, leader of the opposition Samajwadi Party, blamed the incident on the state government, controlled through the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
“This is a very painful incident. The government and leadership of Uttar Pradesh are completely in favor of this incident. The loss of life in this incident is due to the negligence of the government,” Yadav said in a speech to reporters in Delhi.
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