Stampede at Kubereshwar Dham, two women killed, several injured

 

 

A tragic incident once again occurred at Kubereshwar dham (around 50 km away from Bhopal) on Tuesday, when a large number of devotees hustled for darshan that led to a stampede-like situation. Consequently, two women were killed and several others were injured in the rush. Thousands of devotees thronged the temple premises ahead of the Kanwar Yatra scheduled for Wednesday and Pandit Pradeep Mishra was expected to participate in this procession. Since there was announcement was made regarding the said yatra in advance a large number people started to reach to the temple. The incident occurred around noon when an overwhelming surge of pilgrims disrupted arrangements for darshan and accommodation.

 

Eyewitnesses reported chaotic scenes as devotees jostled for space near the temple entrance, leading to a scuffle and eventual stampede. According to the authorities, the deceased women, both believed to be around 50 years old, were crushed under the crowd and succumbed to their injuries on the spot. Additional Superintendent of Police Sunita Rawat confirmed the fatalities and said that efforts are underway to identify the victims. The injured have been shifted to the district hospital for treatment. In past too, due to the failure of the authorities and organiser, several people lost their lives during mega gatherings at different occasions. As a large number of devotees throng to the Kubereshwar Dham for the Rudraksh Mahotsav and the Shiv Mahapuran Katha.

 

 

As the publicity for the religious programme at this dham is being carried out with a great deal, people from across the State comes here in large number led to stampede like situation. Since the revered Ashram is situated at busy the Bhopal-Indore highway, a heavy traffic jam was seen around 10 kilometres on the highway. Traffic diversion at highway also irked passengers several time as commuters have to go several kilometres extra mile that put extra burden of money and consume more time to travel. People stuck on route, talking to ‘The Hitavada’ said that it is around 75 km more distance they have to travel due to diversion on the Indore-Bhopal route at Sehore. Since they have to go to Mumbai and catch a train from Indore affording one hour more time was caused inconvenience to them. This is not an exceptional case of Suresh Patidar, a businessman, several others on this route were having same plight. Notably, five months ago three people died within three days at Rudraksh Festival at this place. Annoyed with the situation, Sunita Tiwari on the way to Dewas with her family said that guards deployed at dham misled us saying there is diversion only 10 km extra they need to go but in reality “we found it is more than 50 km extra, we have to go to come to the highway.”