At least 10 Hindu devotees were stampeded to death and 30 others injured during ‘Astami Snan’, one of the major religious festivals of the Hindu community, at Langalbandh in Bandar upazila on the outskirts of capital Dhaka on Friday.Officer-in-charge of Bandar Police Station Nazrul Islam said the tragic incident occurred in a crowd at Rajghat as thousands of Hindu devotees gathered there on the occasion of the annual bathing festival.
Every year, on the eighth day of the lunar month which falls in the Bengali month of Chaitra, tens of thousands of devotees from home and abroad assemble on the banks of the Old Brahmaputra for the ritual bath in the river.
Around a million pilgrims from Bangladesh and surrounding countries travel to the area each year to wash in the Brahmaputra river at Langalband, 20km (12 miles) south of the capital, Dhaka, sources said.
Some of those attending said that there were not enough ambulances or police officers to ensure the safety of devotees. Law enforcers however said their presence was larger this year than before this being a holiday and a larger crowd was anticipated. The cause of the tragedy is being investigated, they said
“All on a sudden, I heard cries and saw people getting trampled,” one survivor said. “I lost my nephew in the chaos. I only survived by running to higher ground.” – News Desk
