Police reported that about 250,000 people gathered at a Hindu rally in northern India, and 121 people died due to crowding, three times the number allowed by authorities.
The fatal crush occurred on a site called ” Sasan On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of devotees came to pay homage to Bhole Baba, a popular self-proclaimed guru, in a village in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh.
According to authorities, the size of the crowd praying for Baba, whose real name was Narayan Sakar Vishwa Hari, was three times the 50,000 authorized by the authorities.
According to police reports, the crush was caused by large crowds trying to touch the master’s feet and the ground he was standing on, while organizers used force to prevent people from leaving the road and heading to safety.
According to eyewitnesses, it also started to rain, causing people to slip and fall amid the crowds and high humidity. Most of the dead were women and children. The death toll rose to 121 on Tuesday.
“Writers sitting on the ground were crushed as the uncontrollable crowd left the venue,” the police report said.
“On the other side of the road, people running in water and muddy fields were forcibly stopped by the organizing committee with sticks. The pressure of the crowd continued to increase, and women, children, and men were constantly crushed.”
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered an investigation into the deaths and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the victims would be “helped in every way”.
Police said a case has been opened against the organizers of the event and Baba Vishwa Hari was also expected to be arrested later on Wednesday, but police were still trying to ascertain his whereabouts.
Neither the organizers nor the Grandmaster have issued a statement regarding the fatal crush.
The guru, who reportedly worked as a policeman before becoming a self-styled spiritual leader, has held such gatherings in local villages for years.
Families of the dead and missing gathered at hospitals and morgues in Hathras, desperate for answers and trying to find the bodies of their loved ones.
Vikas Kumar, whose grandmother was among the victims, told The Indian Express that after the guru left, people rushed forward and tried to take away the soil from where he stood.
after Sasan After it was over, people started leaving in droves because it was raining and many people slipped and people kept falling and getting crushed,” Kumar said.
In recent years, India has witnessed numerous incidents of crowding during religious events and pilgrimages. Rajesh Kumar Jha, a member of parliament, questioned why the deaths kept happening, saying “people will continue to die” if authorities don’t take safety protocols seriously.
