Allahabad: Officials have denied there were any deaths at the Kumbh Mela due to a stampede.
World | India
No stampede deaths at Kumbh Mela, Indian officials say
Indicate the possibility of deaths due to others causes such as an illness or fatigue
- By Bobby Naqvi, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 20:38 February 10, 2013
- Image Credit: AP
- Thousands of Indian Hindu devotees walk across a pontoon bridge at Sangam, before bathing at the confluence of the Rivers Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati, during Maha Kumbh festival, in Allahabad, India, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013. Millions of Hindu pilgrims are attending the Maha Kumbh festival, and over 25 million are expect to take a holy dip at Sangam on Sunday, Feb. 10, on the greatly auspicious occasion of "Mauni Amavasya." (AP Photo /Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Contradicting reports aired by some news channels about the death of two pilgrims on Sunday, Devesh Chaturvedi, the Commissioner of Allahabad Division, and Alok Sharma, Inspector General of Police, said that any stampede would not have gone unnoticed by the Mela administration or media at the scene.
They added that CCTV cameras would have recorded the incident, too.
As per news reports, two people are feared dead in a stampede.
Allahabad officials in their joint statement, however, indicated the possibility that the deaths might have occurred due to others causes such as an illness or fatigue caused during the bathing or migrating from one place to another on foot. This information will only be available after a post-mortem, they said.
The officials requested media not to give credibility to unconfirmed reports and help the Mela administration to control the unprecedented crowd.
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Bobby Naqvi is Editor of XPRESS, a sister publication of Gulf News
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