11 killed in Deoghar temple stampede

The stampede was reportedly triggered by devotees jumping the queue. Soon after, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghuvar Das ordered a probe into the incident by the state home secretary.

Many blamed the poor crowd management on Jharkhand government’s failure to make suitable arrangements to accommodate about 40,0000 devotees.

The incident took place around 4 am when a group of 300 kanwariyas reportedly tried to jump the queue at Belabagan, three kilometres from the main temple.

With bamboo barricades meant to allow only 15-20 devotees at a time, the crowd surge led to many being trampled upon. The darkness along the route made it even more difficult for the victims to recover from the fall.

The holy month of Sawan brings 25-30 lakh kanwariyas (devotees of Lord Shiva) to the temple. Nearly 1.5 lakh devotees visit the temple on Mondays during the holy month as the day is considered auspicious. On any given Monday during Sawan, the queue of devotees extends up to 17 km as against 4 km during the rest of the week.

Devotees walk nearly 104 km — from Sultanganj in Bihar to Deoghar in Jharkhand — to offer Gangajal during the month of Sawan.

The Jharkhand government has now appointed a special deputy commissioner and superintendent to monitor arrangements for the rest of the month.

The government also announced Rs 2 lakh compensation to the next of kin of each victim.

Deogarh Sadar Hospital civil surgeon Dr Diwakar Kamat said that while four patients had suffered serious injuries, most of the others were out of danger.

Among those killed, four were identified; Pradyumna Gupta (16) from Araria (Bihar), Pravesh Kumar Keshri (Chandauli), Vivek Kumar (Kanpur) and Kalika Prasad (Bahraich) from Uttar Pradesh. Out of the 50 injured, over 20 people were reportedly from UP, while the rest were from from West Bengal, Assam and Bihar.

“The sudden call by kanwariyas about the queue being allowed to move caused the stampede as everyone tried to move ahead. The surge from behind led to the tragedy,” Ramesh Paswan, an injured kanwariya from Bihar, said.

“Some devotees, resting inside their tents, were woken up by fellow kanwariyas. They were told that the temple gates had been opened. As they scrambled to get in queue, another bigger queue from behind pushed them,” Deepnarain Dubey, a local journalist, said.

He added that, though the Jharkhand administration had deployed over 7,000 constables and jawans from state police and Rapid Action Force and NDRF, the crowd management was still very poor.

However, when asked about the arrangements, state Urban Development Minister CP Singh said: “It is not the time to engage in a blame game.”