India begins investigation after 30 killed in Kumbh Mela stampede
India begins investigation after 30 killed in Kumbh Mela stampede
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Bereaved families and opposition leaders blame mismanagement and prioritising VIPs for crowd crush at world’s largest religious gathering. Indian authorities have launched an investigation into the stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela that killed at least 30 people early on Wednesday and left 60 injured.
Millions of Hindu pilgrims have arrived at the festival in Prayagraj in the northern Uttar Pradesh state to take a “holy bath” at the confluence of rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati. The state government took almost 16 hours to provide any death toll after senior police officers initially dismissed the report of a stampede, which took place about 1km away from the confluence called Sangam.
"The government has decided that a judicial inquiry of the incident will be done," Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath told reporters late on Wednesday after refusing to call the incident a stampede the entire day. “For this, we have formed a three-member judicial commission, which will look into the entire matter and submit its report to the state government within a time limit.”.
He said the crush occurred when pilgrims tried to jump barricades erected for a procession of naked, ash-smeared ascetic men. Reuters quoted police sources as claiming that around 40 dead bodies had been brought to a local hospital morgue in Prayagraj. It is unclear why there is a discrepancy between ground reports and the official death toll.
