Families in India cremate loved ones killed in stampede at religious festival

PRAYAGRAJ, India (AP) — Grieving families cremated their loved ones while others cared for their injured relatives in hospitals on Thursday, a day after a stampede killed at least 30 people and injured 60 others on a riverbank at the Maha Kumbh festival in northern India.

The Uttar Pradesh state government ordered a retired judge to investigate the stampede and submit his findings within a month as millions of Hindus continued the bathing ritual without a break as part of the festival in Prayagraj.

A woman wept uncontrollably as an ambulance left a hospital mortuary for the cremation site.

Sharvan Kumar Chaudhary, an injured pilgrim on a stretcher in a hospital ward, said, “I fell during the stampede. I was with a friend who brought me here.”

Rakesh, who uses one name, is searching for missing family members who came on the pilgrimage without him.

“My wife, aunt, and children came for a bath, and they have been missing since the Jan. 28 evening,” he said.

Witnesses said that religious chants turned to screams and cries for help as thousands of pilgrims rushing to a sacred river confluence jumped barricades erected for a procession of holy men in Prayagraj, trampling those waiting for their turn to bathe in the river.

Wednesday was a sacred day in the six-week Hindu festival, and authorities expected a record 100 million devotees to engage in a ritual bath at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Saraswati rivers. Hindus believe that a dip at the holy site can cleanse them of past sins and end the process of reincarnation.

Nearly 400 million people are expected in Prayagraj for the festival over 45 days, making it the world’s largest religious gathering. The number of people is more than the population of the United States and around 200 times the 2 million pilgrims who were in Saudi Arabia for the annual Hajj pilgrimage last year. The festival started on Jan. 13.