More than 120 people are killed at a religious gathering in India, predominantly women.
People congregate outside an Etah hospital's emergency room.
In one of the deadliest such occurrences the nation has seen in recent years, a crush of people at a religious gathering in northern India on Tuesday killed over a hundred people, the most of them were women.
A large number of the fatalities had fallen into the open sewage adjacent to the event. A quarter of a million people showed up at the place, which is more than three times the number that was anticipated, and just a few dozen police officers were present. As a result, authorities are looking into the organisers. The self-proclaimed godman who oversaw the event, Bhole Baba, is being sought by investigators. The tragedy occurred during a satsang, or prayer gathering, in the village of Mughal Garhi in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India. Located in the Hathras district, the village lies roughly 200 kilometres (124 miles) southeast of New Delhi, the nation's capital.
Sandeep Singh, the Minister of State for Education, told reporters on Wednesday that a crush occurred when a large number of people rushed to touch Bhole Baba's feet, resulting in at least 121 deaths and 35 injuries. According to Singh's earlier statement, almost all of the victims were female, and at least seven of them were youngsters. Local health officials said that so far about 72 bodies have been identified and that scores of injured persons are receiving treatment in adjacent hospitals.
It was anticipated that 80,000 people would attend the ceremony, where Bhole Baba will be preaching. But according to Singh, "a lot more people showed up."
Since the fatal occurrence, authorities have been searching for Bhole Baba. According to a police report, the organisers of the event have been charged with culpable homicide that does not equal to murder, illegally restraining a person, causing evidence to disappear, or presenting false information.
The report stated that although permission was requested for an event with 80,000 people, a crowd of almost 250,000 fanatics turned out. It further said that thousands of people sought to flee, and in the ensuing turmoil, scores of people were trampled while organisers and officials struggled to control the mob. According to the investigation, the event organisers tried to conceal the occurrence by concealing the shoes and clothing that attendees had lost in the crush in a nearby field, while also failing to treat the injured. Anupam Kulshreshtha, the additional director general of Agra police, informed reporters that about forty police officers had been sent to ensure security for the event.
Chief secretary Singh said that following the ceremony, Bhole Baba's followers rushed to the stage to touch his feet, which resulted in deadly scenes. He recounted chaos as people started falling on top of each other and into an open sewer nearby. He charged that the organisers had not followed a set of guidelines provided by the district. According to local officials, a police report will be filed against the event organisers for allegedly exceeding permissible attendance numbers, and a high-level inquiry has been begun to investigate the circumstances surrounding the occurrence.
An enormous oversight occurred on the side of the coordinators. They'll get a severe punishment, he declared. After the terrifying episode, survivors talked about it. Individuals began to collapse on top of each other. The crushed ones perished. Shakuntala Devi informed the Press Trust of India news agency, "People there pulled them out," as reported by the Associated Press.
Inspector General Shalabh Mathur of the nearby district Ambala Range stated that plans are being made for post-mortem examinations at multiple locations and that efforts are in progress to offer medical attention to the injured.
Crowds gathered outside a hospital in the nearby Etah neighbourhood, where grieving relatives wept for the deaths, according to a Reuters video that was released. People were being carried by medical staff on stretchers. In a parliamentary speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his sympathies. According to Modi, the federal government is working with state governments to coordinate "relief and rescue work." "Everything will be done to help the victims," he declared.
In India, religious gatherings frequently experience crush accidents involving large crowds. Several fatal instances have been reported in the media, underscoring the deficiency of proper crowd management and safety protocols.
At least twelve people were slain in a new year's crush that occurred in January 2022 at Jammu, one of India's holiest sanctuaries, in the country's north. Three years before, over 250 people were crushed to death during a pilgrimage in the western state of Maharashtra. In 2008, some 150 people had gathered for a religious event in western India and died in a crush on a hilltop.
