Lok Sabha Member of Parliment and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi on July 5 met victims of Hathras stampede which killed 121 people and injured 31 on July 2. The Congress leader first stopped at Pilakhna village in Aligarh to meet relatives of victims. Four persons from Pilakhni village had died in the stampede.
This was the first visit of a senior Opposition leader to Aligarh and Hathras since the stampede took place. Congress party’s Uttar Pradesh President Ajai Rai, in-charge Avinash Pande, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, and other office bearers accompanied Rahul Gandhi during the visit.
“He told us that he would help us with the help of the party. He asked us how everything happened,” a member of a bereaved family told news agency ANI after Rahul Gandhi’s visit.
#WATCH | Hathras, UP: Congress MP and LoP in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi speaks to the victims of the stampede that took place in Hathras on July 2 claiming the lives of 121 people. pic.twitter.com/pyk0TXBk0H
— ANI (@ANI) July 5, 2024
From Aligarh, Rahul headed to Hathras where the tragedy took place to interact with aggrieved families.
The stampede took place on the evening of July 2 at a Satsang of religious preacher Suraj Pal also knows as Narayan Sakar Hari and ‘Bhole Baba’. An FIR has been registered in the incident naming organizers of the event. The preacher has not been named, however. Six organisers have been so far arrested in the case.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited the site of the tragedy on Wednesday. He ordered a judicial probe into the incident. A three-member Judicial Inquiry Commission under the chairmanship of Justice (retd) Brijesh Kumar Srivastava has been constituted to ensure comprehensiveness of the subject matter and transparency in the inquiry.
The Judicial Commission will investigate the stampede incident over the the next two months and submit its report to the state government.
Initial reports suggested that the stampede took place when devotees rushed to seek blessings and collect soil from around the preacher’s feet. When the security stopped the devotees, they then started pushing one another due to which several people fell down triggering the stampede.