Eyewitness claims in Vaishno Devi temple accident: CRPF had scared people with batons for a VIP, this led to a stampede; 12 pilgrims died

A stampede broke out at Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan in Jammu and Kashmir around 2.30 pm on Saturday. People started running, trampling each other. 12 people died in this accident. More than 20 people have been injured. Eight people from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu, and Kashmir have been identified among the dead. The Central and State Governments have ordered an inquiry into the cause of the accident.

Meanwhile, Himanshu Agarwal, who closely watched the accident, told that he is a resident of Khail Bazar of Panipat in Haryana. He along with his friends Raghav, Himanshu Sharma, Jatin, and Bharat had gone for Vaishno Devi Darshan two days ago.

He was returning after having darshan. It will be around two and a half to three in the night. A crowd of people going to visit and all those who came back after having darshan gathered near check post 3. Now from here, there was neither a way to come nor a way to go.

Meanwhile, the CRPF personnel handling the arrangements there adopted a very irresponsible attitude. Instead of moving the crowd little by little, they started intimidating and intimidating people with sticks. They were intimidating and saying that a VIP has to come, they have to be seen, clear the way quickly. But the soldiers did not see that there was no place for movement at all. Still, people started moving back and forth from there because of fear. We were also in the same line from where the first movement of people took place.

A person fell in front of me, the other person who tried to lift got hit from behind and he also fell. As soon as they fell, one after the other people started running away from the fear of CRPF and a stampede broke out. I and my friends climbed on the pillars.

There was an atmosphere of a stampede for about 15 minutes. After this, more teams of CRPF reached the spot and started evacuating people as per arrangement. We got down from the pillars and heaved a sigh of relief.