Staff Reporter :
The district administration of Naraynganj has formed a three-member probe committee to find out the reason behind the tragic death of 10 people in stampede at Langlebandh in Naryanganj on Friday.
Deputy Commissioner of Naraynganj Anisur Rahman Mia told The New Nation yesterday, “We have formed a three-member committee headed by Deputy Director [of local government] Ishrat Hossain asking him to submit report within next five days.”
“Other two members of the committee are
Additional Deputy Commissioner [general] of Naraynaganj and Additional District Magistrate Mizanur Rahman,” he said.
The DC said, “Most of the devotees were killed on the bailey bridge which connects the main road with the ghats of the river. The adjacent roads were wide, but the bailey bridge was smaller. As a result, it could not accommodate the rush of devotees when they were all running towards the river ghats at a time.”
Pointing another reason for the yesterday’s mad rush, the DC said, “Each year the devotees get the whole day to take bath. But this year they have got only 12 hours, as per panjika [Hindu astronomical almanac] for that purpose. Specially, they were in a hurry to reach the ghats within time limit [logna] between 6:00am and 9:30am yesterday to earn more blessings [punya].” He said that most of the victims were above fifty years of age. “In preliminary investigation, it was found that they died due to suffocation,” he said. Denying the allegation of insufficient security measures, the DC said: “We had taken enough protective measures for the devotees. We had also cleaned up the water hyacinth and erected bamboo fences in front of all 16 ghats.”
“But the rush was high and several thousand devotees also came to the spot by boats. It damaged the fences and for that reason the hyacinth again covered the ghat areas,” he added. The bodies were handed over to the relatives of victims without any post mortem. Each victim’s family, however, got Tk 25, 000 from the local administration for funeral, he said.
The district administration of Naraynganj has formed a three-member probe committee to find out the reason behind the tragic death of 10 people in stampede at Langlebandh in Naryanganj on Friday.
Deputy Commissioner of Naraynganj Anisur Rahman Mia told The New Nation yesterday, “We have formed a three-member committee headed by Deputy Director [of local government] Ishrat Hossain asking him to submit report within next five days.”
“Other two members of the committee are
Additional Deputy Commissioner [general] of Naraynaganj and Additional District Magistrate Mizanur Rahman,” he said.
The DC said, “Most of the devotees were killed on the bailey bridge which connects the main road with the ghats of the river. The adjacent roads were wide, but the bailey bridge was smaller. As a result, it could not accommodate the rush of devotees when they were all running towards the river ghats at a time.”
Pointing another reason for the yesterday’s mad rush, the DC said, “Each year the devotees get the whole day to take bath. But this year they have got only 12 hours, as per panjika [Hindu astronomical almanac] for that purpose. Specially, they were in a hurry to reach the ghats within time limit [logna] between 6:00am and 9:30am yesterday to earn more blessings [punya].” He said that most of the victims were above fifty years of age. “In preliminary investigation, it was found that they died due to suffocation,” he said. Denying the allegation of insufficient security measures, the DC said: “We had taken enough protective measures for the devotees. We had also cleaned up the water hyacinth and erected bamboo fences in front of all 16 ghats.”
“But the rush was high and several thousand devotees also came to the spot by boats. It damaged the fences and for that reason the hyacinth again covered the ghat areas,” he added. The bodies were handed over to the relatives of victims without any post mortem. Each victim’s family, however, got Tk 25, 000 from the local administration for funeral, he said.
