Hathras stampede: A heartbreaking and poignant scene was witnessed inside the government hospital here after the deadly stampede at a religious gathering held in Sikandrarao area of Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. Bodies were kept on ice slabs inside the hospital while the mourning relatives of the victims waited outside in the drizzle at night to take the bodies home.
108 women and 7 children died
Officials put the death toll at 116, including 108 women, seven children and one man. The massive stampede occurred during a satsang organised by preacher Bhole Baba at Pulrai village in the Sikandrarao area of Hathras district on Tuesday, leading to the tragedy. The stampede occurred around 3.30 pm when the baba was leaving the venue. Many people were seen looking for their missing family members till late at night outside the Sikandrarao Community Health Centre (CHC), the nearest health facility from the stampede site.
Rajesh, who lives in Kasganj district, said he was looking for his mother while Shivam was looking for his aunt. Both were carrying mobile phones with pictures of their relatives. “I saw my mother’s picture on a news channel and recognised her. She had come here to attend a satsang along with two dozen others from our village,” Rajesh said. Anshu and Pawan Kumar were waiting near the CHC in their small pick-up truck loaded with empty milk containers, hoping to find their cousin’s missing father Gopal Singh (40).
Anshu said he had gone for the programme but had not returned home yet. He is a simple man. He does not even have a mobile phone. He said Singh was not a follower of Baba but had gone for the first time at the behest of an acquaintance. Meena Devi, who lost her mother Sudama Devi (65), said it was drizzling in the area (Sadikpur) where I live, otherwise I was also planning to go to the sangat with my mother. A grief-stricken Meena Bagla was sitting outside the TB department of the District Combined Hospital, where several bodies were kept on the ground floor. She said my brother and sister-in-law, their children had gone to the sangat with my mother. My mother was left behind in the crowd and was crushed.
Vinod Kumar Suryavanshi, a resident of Barse village in Sasni tehsil, lost his 72-year-old aunt, while his mother luckily survived. “I have been here for three hours. The body is still here and I have been told that it will now be sent for post-mortem, but I don’t know how much more time it will take,” he said while waiting for his aunt’s son who arrived here from Greater Noida.
Suryavanshi said his aunt and mother have been following Baba’s preaching for about 15 years and called the stampede unfortunate. Several bodies have been kept at the district hospital. Some have been kept at the trauma centre in Sikandrarao area near the site of the incident, while some have been sent to a government hospital in nearby Etah district. Rajesh said my mother’s body is here, but an ambulance is not available to take the body for post-mortem.
no oxygen facility
Meanwhile, RSS and Bajrang Dal workers and volunteers have also been present at the hospital since afternoon and have been distributing water packets to the relatives of the victims and guiding them about medical procedures. Many of the relatives of the victims are still in shock. “The number of ambulances was inadequate for the number of bodies we have seen here today,” said Bajrang Dal volunteer Aniket, standing at the gate of the TB department building, soaked in sweat. Earlier in the day, heart-wrenching scenes unfolded outside the district’s Sikandarao Trauma Centre, where dead or unconscious victims were brought in ambulances, trucks and cars. A woman was crying while sitting among five or six bodies in a truck, urging people to help her take her daughter’s body out of the vehicle. An agitated youth outside the hospital said there were about 100-200 casualties and there was only one doctor at the hospital. There was no oxygen facility. Some people are still breathing, but there is no proper treatment facility.