
Undeterred by a stampede that killed at least 30 people the day before, swarming crowds of devotees were held in rivers at the largest religious event in the world in India on Thursday.
Every twelve years, the northern city of Prayagraj hosts the Kumbh Mela, which draws tens of millions of Hindu devotees from all across India. However, the event has a terrible history of fatal mob occurrences.
Some terrified pilgrims left the event after Wednesday’s pre-dawn catastrophe, in which a rushing crowd swept out of a police perimeter and crushed onlookers. However, many people continued to arrive in the aftermath of the stampede to partake in what they claimed was a religious duty.
We’ve heard about the stampede,” 21-year-old Naveen Pradhan told AFP after joining his family at the event just hours after the tragedy. However, this is a sacred and spiritual act we Hindus should undertake, and my family would never have missed it.
As the planets of the Solar System aligned on Wednesday, one of the holiest days of the six-week Kumbh Mela—the single biggest event on the Hindu religious calendar—took place.
Hours later, millions of people were led into a sin-cleansing bath near the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers by holy men dressed in saffron, despite the early morning catastrophe.
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