Church leaders mourn stampede deaths in India’s capital

Church leaders have mourned the death of Hindu pilgrims in the latest stampede at the overcrowded New Delhi Railway Station in India’s capital. The deadly crush on Feb. 15 night reportedly killed 18 people and left several injured. Railway officials said the surging crowds scrambled to catch trains to Prayagraj, a city in northern Uttar Pradesh state, for the Maha Kumbh, the world’s biggest religious gathering of humanity. This is the second such tragedy related to the Maha Kumbh festival in recent weeks. On Jan. 29, at least 30 people lost their lives in a stampede at the festival in Prayagraj. Two trains had been delayed at the station, while a third heading to Prayagraj was waiting to depart. “People pushed against each other to get into them and the crush occurred after some passengers slipped and fell on the stairs” leading to the platforms, a spokesperson for Indian Railways said. Opposition leaders criticized the Indian Railways and the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led federal government in Delhi, for failing to manage crowds. “Very unfortunate and sad that we have lost precious lives of Hindu pilgrims,” Father Savarimuthu Sankar, spokesperson of the Archdiocese of Delhi told on Feb.17. He said the administration “learned nothing from the deadly stampede just 15 days ago.” Father Isidore D’Souza, chancellor of Allahabad diocese told that “in both the incidents, the authorities did not expect that such huge crowds would turn out.” Allahabad is the former name of the Prayagraj. People suspect that the exact number of causalities in the stampedes is not made known. “It’s also not clear what exactly led to the tragedies,” D’Souza added.