This Article is From Oct 04, 2014

Patna Stampede: For Many Families, Dussehra Turns Into Their Darkest Day

Patna: Four-year-old Lucky Kumari and two-year-old Lado stand outside their home in Patna's Azad Colony, staring at an uncertain future. For the sisters, a fun-filled outing with family on Friday amid Dussehra festivities turned into a terrible tragedy in a matter of hours as a stampede outside the Gandhi Maidan killed over 30 people, including their mother. Their father is battling for his life at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Patna Medical College and Hospital.

Their eight-month-old brother, Anmol, who was missing since last evening, was today found by the Bihar Police at the same hospital where their father is admitted. He was handed over to the relatives of the family, bringing some relief to a house where grief hangs heavy in the air.

Similar scenes of loss are seen in several other homes across the city where families lost their loves ones in the stampede. Most of those killed were women and children. (Read)

One of them is 45-year-old Nirmala Kumari, who had gone to Gandhi Maidan with her three sons to watch the Dussehra celebrations, but never returned. Her sons say they got separated from their mother while rushing out through the gate of the sprawling ground amid the chaos that preceded the stampede.

Their father, Manoj had decided to skip the outing, a decision, he says, he will regret for the rest of his life.

"Had I been there, I would have got her out," he said, before bursting into tears.

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