N’ganj ‘Astami Snan’ stampede kills 10

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At least 10 devotees were trampled to death and 30 others injured during ‘Astami Snan’, one of the major religious festivals of the Hindu community, at Langalbandh in Bandar upazila here on Friday. The deceased were Nitai Chandra Das, Babul Biswas of Madaripur district, Ranjit Mallik of Chandina upazila, Kanan Bala of Daudkandi upazila, Tulshi Debnath of Meghna upazila in Comilla district, Bhagabati Das of Dhanmondi, Rahi of Lalbagh in the capital, Malati Das of Manikganj district, Bhanumati Das of Kabirhat uapzila in Noakhali district and an 11-year old unidentified girl. 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 open bath festival. Police, meanwhile, recovered the 10 bodies from the spot, the OC said. Basudeb Chakraborti, secretary of Langalbandh Snan(bathing) Festival, said the bodies will be handed over to the family members of the deceased without any postmortem as per their request. 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. –UNB, Narayanganj

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