Victims’ kin, witnesses allege security, management lapses after Lakhisarai stampede
Witnesses and Families Point to Management Failures After Ashokdham Temple Stampede
Bharatmorningnews.com – Relatives of those killed and injured in the Lakhisarai stampede, along with people who were present at the scene, have levelled serious accusations against both the local administration and the temple authorities. They contend that neither body made adequate preparations for what was expected to be a massive gathering on the third Monday of the Hindu month of Shravan.
Queues, Barricades, and a Slope
Multiple eyewitnesses described devotees waiting for hours inside bamboo barricades, with several parallel lines funneling toward the temple entrance. According to their accounts, overcrowding and poor crowd regulation caused the barriers to give way, unleashing a surge in which people toppled and were trampled.
Vinod Kumar, who had made the journey from Mokama specifically to visit the shrine, recalled that roughly 100 individuals were attempting to shove their way past those already in line at the entrance. He noted that the entry point sat on a slope, and that the bamboo structures collapsed amid the pushing. His wife, he said, was swept up in the resulting crush.
The Fallen Power Pole and Rumour of Live Current
Several witnesses connected the sudden panic to talk of an electric current coursing through a downed power line. Sanjeev Kumar Singh pointed out that a cement electricity pole standing in a field approximately half a kilometre from the temple and roughly 300 metres from Ashok Dham railway station had reportedly been tilting for two days prior to the incident, yet the district administration took no action.
"Barricading had been installed around the area to regulate the queue, we devotees passing through four to five lines instead of a single line," he added.
Singh stated that the pole came down at approximately 6:39 a.m., after which whispers of spreading electricity ignited fear among the crowd.
Devotee Sandhya Kumari offered further detail, alleging that the roughly 25-foot cement pole had been set into an agricultural field with only about two-and-a-half feet of excavation and that its foundation had not been properly reinforced. In her account, the structure first bent before toppling entirely.
Utility Company Response
Saurabh Jorwal, managing director of the South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (SBPDCL), offered a different framing. He stated that the pole possessed a concrete base and that his team was investigating whether the collapse resulted from soil erosion around the foundation or from the weight of large numbers of devotees traversing the paved path that ran alongside the field where the pole stood.
"The electric pole fell around 70 metres from the bamboo barricades put up by the administration leading to the temple. We are trying to ascertain the cause behind the fall of the electric pole."
Voices from the Crush
Kavitri Devi, who lost three sisters-in-law in the incident, described the family's intention to offer prayers at Ashokdham. She recalled that devotees were standing in orderly queues when, without warning, people began sprinting in every direction, sending others crashing to the ground and being trampled.
Muskan, a 20-year-old injured in the stampede with a fractured leg alongside serious head and hand wounds, said she had departed home around 5 a.m. to reach the temple. The queue, she reported, stretched beyond a kilometre and was noticeably denser than on the preceding Monday. She described the moment the crowd erupted into flight, people tumbling over one another as the barriers failed. Some in the throng cried out that electricity had spread, she said, and before she could extricate herself the mass carried her into the crush.
Pinki Kumari, 17, another devotee receiving treatment at Sadar Hospital, recalled spending roughly 30 to 40 minutes working her way to the middle of the line. At about 6:45 a.m., she said, shouts erupted that an electric current had spread and that multiple people had already died. The crowd scattered in terror; many fell before the barricades finally gave way.
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