Hathras Satsang Stampede: Hundreds of people were killed and many others injured in a stampede at a religious gathering in a village in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras district on Tuesday (02 July). This is not the first time that a large number of people have died in stampedes in temples and other religious gatherings in India in the last few years.
Earlier, the biggest stampede accidents in religious congregations included the death of more than 340 devotees in Maharashtra's Mandhardevi temple in 2005 and the death of at least 250 people in Rajasthan's Chamunda Devi temple in 2008. People present there narrated eyewitness accounts of this accident in Hathras.
What did the eyewitness say?
According to UP Tak, a local resident named Sonu Dixit said, “When I came here, Bhole Baba was leaving and some people ran to touch his feet or do something else. In this situation, other people also ran and there was a stampede. Some people fell into a pit and we tried to take them out. During this, Baba's servants came and they stopped us and told us to go away. When we tried to take videos and photos, they threatened us to run away from here or else we will be beaten badly.”
Bhole Baba did not take help from the administration?
On the mismanagement in the satsang, Sonu Dixit says that these people did not ask for help from the administration. They did not say anything to the police and the administration. These people did not even inform the police about such a crowd.
While talking to news agency ANI, another eyewitness said, “Bhole Baba's car was going and his devotees also started running behind it. In the meantime, a stampede broke out and people started climbing over each other in which hundreds of people got buried. Some people died while some were injured.”
