SRINAGAR, Kashmir — At the least 12 folks have been killed and greater than a dozen have been injured in a stampede early Saturday close to town of Jammu within the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, as 1000’s of devotees have been paying obeisance at a well-known Hindu shrine to mark the start of the brand new yr.
A whole lot of individuals have been packed inside a hall of the shrine, Mata Vaishno Devi, within the hilly city of Katra, when at about 2:30 a.m. a conflict broke out exterior, resulting in the stampede, police officers stated.
Dilbag Singh, the highest police officer of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which incorporates Katra, stated that officers had been fast to answer emergency calls however that the “injury was already finished.”
One of many devotees on the shrine, Bunty Singh, stated he, like 1000’s of others, had arrived to supply prayers simply after midnight, an auspicious time for a lot of Hindus to start out the primary day of a yr. However Mr. Singh, 45, a businessman from neighboring Punjab State, stated that the roads resulting in the shrine have been packed and that there was hardly any area to stroll.
“A sudden commotion broke out,” he stated. “Earlier than the stampede, there was a noise for a while, as if folks have been combating with one another.”
Lethal stampedes throughout spiritual pilgrimages and festivals are widespread in India, the place public security measures are sometimes flouted by temple authorities. The stampedes are sometimes introduced on by overcrowding in small areas with few exit-control measures in place. Lately, officers throughout the nation have been making an attempt to enhance public security at temples and shrines, that are visited by tons of of 1000’s of individuals every day. In line with native officers, the temple authorities in Katra stated they’d taken the required security measures.
In October 2013, not less than 115 folks died when 1000’s of non secular pilgrims panicked {that a} slender bridge they have been crossing is perhaps collapsing. About half one million worshipers had flocked that month to a temple within the northern Madhya Pradesh State for a competition. In April 2016, a collection of explosions attributable to a fireworks show throughout a spiritual competition at a temple within the southern Kerala State left 106 lifeless and tons of injured.
Manoj Sinha, India’s prime appointed official within the area, stated he had directed officers to analyze the stampede and to look into how such episodes might be prevented sooner or later.
Movies from Mata Vaishno Devi — which is tucked in a mountain about 5,200 toes above sea degree and is visited every year by thousands and thousands of Hindu pilgrims — confirmed 1000’s of individuals jostling for area close to the doorway to the shrine minutes earlier than the stampede. Later movies present ambulances dashing towards the temple and 1000’s of individuals making an attempt to depart.
Amit Chowdhary, a businessman from Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab, stated he was amongst about two dozen individuals who fell as they noticed an enormous crowd making an attempt to depart by means of one of many shrine’s gates.
“Once I fell, I assumed the primary day of this yr was going to be the final day of my life,” Mr. Chowdhary stated. “Folks have been shifting over the lifeless our bodies. Someway I managed to drag myself up and ran for my life.”