At least eight women devotees were killed in a stampede at the Sheetla Mata temple fair in Bihar’s Nalanda district on Tuesday morning. Several others were injured in the incident, with some shifted to Patna for advanced treatment.
Grief-stricken families of the victims have begun to arrive, raising serious questions over the arrangements at the fair. Many alleged lack of crowd management and inadequate administrative preparedness.
One of the victims’ relatives, Sahil Raj, broke down while speaking about the tragedy. He said his mother had left for the fair early in the morning, while he was in Patna, and he could not see her in her final moments. “I don’t know anything… my mother is gone. There was no proper arrangements at the fair. My life is ruined now,” he said.
Sahil, a resident of Islampur who studies and works in Patna, claimed that there was no effective system in place to handle the crowd, leading to chaos and the fatal stampede.
The incident has triggered outrage among locals, with many blaming poor planning and negligence for the loss of lives. Authorities have not yet issued a detailed statement on the cause of the stampede.
