- India
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TUESDAY STARTED off as a normal day for 31-year-old Pratap Singh, a daily wage labourer from Sokhna village in Hathras. He left for work early in the morning and did not know that his senior citizen mother, along with two other family members, including his nine-year-old niece, would leave for a Satsang in Phulrai village.
Around 3 pm, Singh’s phone started ringing repeatedly. He ignored some calls and when he picked one, he received disastrous news. His 70-year-old mother Jaimanti Devi, sister-in-law Rajkumari, 42 and nine-year-old Bhoomi – were all missing. They had gone to attend a Satsang to be addressed by a local preacher, Narayan Sakar Vishwa Hari aka ‘Bhole Baba’, and a stampede had occurred at the venue, he was told.
All three of his family members got separated from each other amid the chaos. By the time Singh would know about their location, all three were dead and their bodies ended up in three different districts.
“I was running on the roads, the highway, hospitals. I didn’t know where they actually are. I would ask every person in a white suit – whether a doctor or any hospital staffer – if they have seen my family members,” said Singh.
“It was only late on Tuesday night that I got a call from a person in my village that he received a photo of my mother on WhatsApp and she is at a hospital in Agra. I saw a glimmer of hope, but soon the person called again to say that a government ambulance is bringing her body. The mortal remains of my little niece, Bhoomi, were found in Aligarh and my sister-in-law’s in Hathras. The whole family is gone. My brother has three more children, how will he survive now?” said Singh.
Rinku, 32, another resident of the village, has just reached home after her aunt, Son Devi, was cremated in Sokhna.
Devi, with her two nephews, had attended the Satsang. While the two men survived the stampede, Son Devi could not run to save her life. Her body was found by Rinku in a field. Around 50 km from Sokhna, Kamlesh Devi, 22 and her six-month-old daughter Chanchal were cremated around 9 pm on Wednesday in Donkeli. Their bodies had been brought there from Hathras District Hospital. It has been raining in Donkeli since the afternoon.
The wet soil was dug to bury Chanchal’s body while her mother’s pyre burnt near a mango tree just 100 metres away. Kamlesh was married three years ago to Lala Ram of Donkeli who is an agricultural labourer and had two daughters. Both Ram and Laxmi, her two and half year old daughters kept looking at the pyre in pain which they were unable to express.
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