Organizers of religious event in India that killed 121 people arrested

The permit to hold the event was not issued in the name of Guru Bhole Baba, however, he is being investigated by the authorities for his criminal record.

Police reported on Thursday the arrest of six members of the organization of the religious ceremony in which 121 people died in a stampede in northern Indiawhile the search for others responsible for the incident continues.

“Six people, including four men and two women, have been arrested following the incident. All of them are members of the organising committee and were working as volunteers,” Inspector General of Police, Aligarh district, Shalabh Mathur, told reporters.

Bodies of stampede victims lay on ice as they waited for identification at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh, India | Photo: EFE/EPA/HARISH TYAGI

“When the stampede occurred, the six volunteers who are now under arrest fled the scene,” the officer said, adding that the main accused remains at large.

This is not, however, the local guru Bhole Baba, who led the prayer ceremony and was seen by some 250,000 people last Tuesday.

According to Mathur, the permit for the event was not issued in Baba’s name, but he said they are investigating the criminal record of the spiritual leader, who has been missing since Tuesday, when the stampede occurred.

Death toll from stampede at religious event in India rises to 121 — The body of a stampede victim lies on ice on a stretcher awaiting transfer to a hospital in Uttar Pradesh, India | Photo: EFE/EPA/HARISH TYAGI

The preacher shared a statement with several media outlets yesterday in which he accused “antisocial elements” of being behind the accident.

The stampede in India

At least 121 people, mostly women, were killed in the incident, which began when several attendees tried to approach the guru to receive his blessing after the event was over.

Hathras District Magistrate Ashish Kumar told Indian news agency PTI that the process of identifying the bodies was completed on Thursday.

Stampedes and avalanches are frequent phenomena during Indian religious celebrations and are largely due to deficiencies in the management of mass gatherings or the precariousness of the infrastructure surrounding places of worship.

To find a stampede more deadly than Tuesday’s, you have to go back to September 2008, when at least 150 people died and another 100 were injured in a stampede at the entrance to a temple in the city of Jodhpur, in the western Indian state of Rajasthan.

Another recent tragedy occurred in January 2011 in the southern state of Kerala, where 102 worshippers lost their lives in a wooded and mountainous area leading to a temple that was difficult to access.

With information from EFE