The mismanagement in tackling the pressure of huge pilgrims caused the deaths of 10 people in a stampede at Langalbandh in Narayanganj on Friday, claims local representatives and relatives of the deceased.

10 Hindu pilgrims were killed and dozens more injured in the stampede on Bandar to Sonargoan road at Langalbandh, outside the capital city on Friday.

Witness said, though hundreds of thousands of people come every year for ‘Mahastami Punya Snan’, the roads and bridges are not wide enough for the movement of so many people. Bailey bridges are 14 feet while roads are 18 feet. Because of the hustle of huge people, many of them fell down on the bridges and others went over them like a stream.

Snan Udjapan Committee president Paritosh Kanti Das said the accident took place due to huge pressure of people. The roads of these places are also narrow as the influential people have occupied parts of temporality. Government should take proper steps to recover those illegally occupied lands

He also said government brought Langalbandh area under a project involving Tk 20 crore. The project included several establishments in the area to make it a developed one. But the project work has been suspended due to financial constraint.  

The deceased of the stampede are Bhanumoti of Noakhali, Nitya Gopal Das, Nitai Das and Malti Das of Manikganj, Kanan Saha and Ranjit Kumar of Comilla, Bhabapati of Dhanmondi, Rakhi Saha of Dhaka’s Lalbagh, Nokul Kunda of Gopalganj, and Khokon Saha of Madaripur.

Police inspector Nasir Ahmed told AFP that we are investigating what triggered the stampede, but it seems that the tragedy was due to an unusually high number of pilgrims,’

‘The stampede involved a huge number of people as thousands of shoes could still be seen on the road an hour after it happened,’ he added.

Witnesses said at least 50 people were injured in the stampede at the annual Astami Snan festival, around 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Dhaka.

The annual rituals normally attract around one million pilgrims from Bangladesh and abroad to the river, which Hindus consider holy.

According to Hindu mythology, Parshuram, an incarnation of lord Vinshnu killed his mother Renuka Devi by an axe at the order of his father Jamadagni. The axe clung on his hand as a mark of sin. At the order of the divinity, Parshuram bathed in the river Brahmaputra on the last month of lunar year as the waterfall of the Himalayan peak joined the river Brahmaputra. The axe dropped from his hand and Parshuram was freed from sin.

In Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Hindus account for around 10% of the country’s 160 million people. 

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