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A stampede at a religious congregation Tuesday killed 116 people, most of them women, as devotees suffocated to their deaths and bodies piled atop each other in the worst such tragedy in recent years.
The stampede took place as the ‘satsang' here ended. Some accounts said people slipped in the slush as they ran after the preacher's car, triggering the stampede.
Tens of thousands of devotees had gathered in the Hathras district's Phulrai village for the ‘satsang', conducted by Baba Narayan Hari who is also known as Saakar Vishwa Hari Bhole Baba.
Twenty-seven bodies were brought to a hospital in neighbouring Etah district, at 89 lay dead in Hathras itself.
UP chief secretary Manoj Kumar Singh put the death toll at 116. Barring seven children and a man, the dead are all women. Singh said 72 have been identified so far.
Victims, dead or unconscious, were brought to the Sikandara Rau Trauma Centre in trucks and ‘tempos'. The bodies lay scattered outside this Hathras health centre as people milled around them.
A video clip showed a woman crying as she sat in a truck, amid five or six bodies. Another showed a man and a woman lifeless in another vehicle.
Clips before the stampede showed people in a large ‘shamiana', listening to Bhole Baba. The 'baba' sat before them on a throne-like chair.
The preacher was a policeman in the 1990s when he left the force, and started holding satsangs, according to one account. Politicians are said to be among his followers.
“There was a race among people running after his vehicle,” the chief secretary told PTI. It is also said, he added, that people pick the soil (on which the baba has stepped) and worship it. So they bent down, and then fell.
District Magistrate Ashish Kumar said the 'satsang' was a private event for which the sub-divisional magistrate had granted permission. The local administration provided security outside the venue while the arrangements inside were made by the organisers, he added.
According to the chief secretary, the application letter seeking permission for the event put the number of expected participants at 80,000. “But it was much more than that," he said.
A participant, Shakuntala Devi told PTI Videos that the stampede took place while people were leaving the venue. People fell atop each other, one after the other, she said, and then the bodies were pulled out.
Sikandra Rau sub divisional magistrate Ravendra Kumar said the stampede took place when devotees tried to get a glimpse of Bhole Baba after the event ended.
They also wanted to collect some soil from around the baba's feet, he told PTI.
'Satsang' participant Sonu Kumar blamed the slippery ground for the stampede.
“When Guru ji left the place after almost one and half hours, all of a sudden devotees ran behind him to touch his feet,” he said. When they turned back, some slipped.
Sikandra Rau police station SHO Ashish Kumar blamed “overcrowding” at the ‘satsang'.
Another participant, who left the place before the end of the ‘satsang' said the arrangements were not adequate, given the number of devotees.
Agra's additional director general of police and Aligarh divisional commissioner are part of a team that would probe the incident, the state government said.
The team has been asked to give its report in 24 hours.
Amid his reply to a two-day debate in Parliament on the motion of thanks on the President's address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the deaths.
"In the midst of discussions, I have also been given some sad news. It has come to my attention that there have been many tragic deaths in a stampede in Hathras, UP," he said in the Lok Sabha.
Modi said senior officials of the central government are in constant contact with the Uttar Pradesh administration to coordinate aid efforts.
On social media, President Droupadi Murmu said the news was heart-rending. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge expressed sadness.
An FIR will be registered against the organisers of the event, a state government statement said.
The Prime Minister's Office announced an ex-gratia compensation of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund for the next of kin of each person killed in the stampede. The injured will be given Rs 50,000.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made a similar announcement.
He said state ministers Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary and Sandeep Singh were headed for Hathras. The chief secretary and the state police chief too were directed to reach the spot.