Hathras Tragedy LIVE | Yogi Adityanath to visit stampede site today

January 2005: More than 265 Hindu devotees were killed and hundreds injured after a stampede at the Mandhardevi temple in the town of Wai in the western state of Maharashtra. The stampede was caused by slippery steps leading to the temple, media reported at the time.

August 2008: At the mountaintop Naina Devi temple in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, around 145 Hindu pilgrims died after rumours of a landslide triggered a stampede.

September 2008: A total of 250 people were trampled to death at the Chamundagar temple in the northern desert state of Rajasthan as pilgrims gathered to celebrate Navratri, a nine-day festival celebrating the goddess Durga.

March 2010: At least 63 people, more than half of them children, were killed in a stampede sparked by a mass rush for free food and clothes at a Hindu temple in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, media reported.

February 2013: At least 36 Hindu pilgrims were killed in a stampede on the busiest day of the Kumbh Mela, a gathering that draws more than 100 million pilgrims over a two-month period, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Twenty-seven of the dead were women, including an eight-year-old girl.

November 2013: About 115 people were killed and more than a hundred injured after a stampede at the Ratangarh temple in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh after more than 150,000 people gathered to celebrate Navratri.

January 2022: At least 12 people died and others were injured in a stampede at the Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir after a huge crowd of devotees tried to enter the shrine through its narrow entrance. (Reuters)

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is expected to visit Hathras on Wednesday, where a stampede at a religious congregation killed 116 people, a senior government official said.

A team comprising the Deputy Director General of Agra and the Divisional Commissioner of Aligarh has been constituted to investigate the cause of the incident. The report is to be submitted within 24 hours, the government said in a statement on Tuesday, following the tragic incident.

Speaking to reporters at his residence on Tuesday, Adityanath said, “Our government will shed light on this incident and appropriately punish the conspirators and those responsible. The state government is investigating the entire incident. We will see whether it was an accident or a conspiracy.”

He also lashed out at the political parties who are playing politics over the tragic incident and said, “Playing politics over such an incident is extremely unfortunate and condemnable. This is the time to heal the wounds of the victims, to sympathise with them. The government is sensitive to this issue and no culprit will be spared.” (PTI)