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Thursday, February 20, 2025

Families in India cremate loved ones killed in stampede at religious festival

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GUARDIAN MEDIA NEWSROOM
21 days ago
20250130
Policemen manage the crowd, a day after a stampede killed Hindu devotees who had gathered to take a holy dip at the Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, during the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, India, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Deepak Sharma)

Policemen manage the crowd, a day after a stampede killed Hindu devotees who had gathered to take a holy dip at the Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, during the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, India, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Deepak Sharma)

Deepak Sharma

Griev­ing fam­i­lies cre­mat­ed their loved ones while oth­ers cared for their in­jured rel­a­tives in hos­pi­tals on Thurs­day, a day af­ter a stam­pede killed at least 30 peo­ple and in­jured 60 oth­ers on a river­bank at the Ma­ha Kumbh fes­ti­val in north­ern In­dia.

The Ut­tar Pradesh state gov­ern­ment or­dered a re­tired judge to in­ves­ti­gate the stam­pede and sub­mit his find­ings with­in a month as mil­lions of Hin­dus con­tin­ued the bathing rit­u­al with­out a break as part of the fes­ti­val in Praya­graj.

A woman wept un­con­trol­lably as an am­bu­lance left a hos­pi­tal mor­tu­ary for the cre­ma­tion site.

Shar­van Ku­mar Chaud­hary, an in­jured pil­grim on a stretch­er in a hos­pi­tal ward, said, “I fell dur­ing the stam­pede. I was with a friend who brought me here.”

Rakesh, who us­es one name, is search­ing for miss­ing fam­i­ly mem­bers who came on the pil­grim­age with­out him.

“My wife, aunt, and chil­dren came for a bath, and they have been miss­ing since the Jan. 28 evening,” he said.

Wit­ness­es said that re­li­gious chants turned to screams and cries for help as thou­sands of pil­grims rush­ing to a sa­cred riv­er con­flu­ence jumped bar­ri­cades erect­ed for a pro­ces­sion of holy men in Praya­graj, tram­pling those wait­ing for their turn to bathe in the riv­er.

Wednes­day was a sa­cred day in the six-week Hin­du fes­ti­val, and au­thor­i­ties ex­pect­ed a record 100 mil­lion devo­tees to en­gage in a rit­u­al bath at the con­flu­ence of the Ganges, the Ya­mu­na and the Saraswati rivers. Hin­dus be­lieve that a dip at the holy site can cleanse them of past sins and end the process of rein­car­na­tion.

Near­ly 400 mil­lion peo­ple are ex­pect­ed in Praya­graj for the fes­ti­val over 45 days, mak­ing it the world’s largest re­li­gious gath­er­ing. The num­ber of peo­ple is more than the pop­u­la­tion of the Unit­ed States and around 200 times the 2 mil­lion pil­grims who were in Sau­di Ara­bia for the an­nu­al Ha­jj pil­grim­age last year. The fes­ti­val start­ed on Jan­u­ary 13, 2025. —PRAYA­GRAJ, In­dia (AP)

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Sto­ry by RA­JESH KU­MAR SINGH | As­so­ci­at­ed Press


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