Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 1: Several political parties and their leaders today expressed grief over the loss of lives in the stampede at the shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi in Jammu on Saturday and urged the administration to take adequate steps to ensure that such an incident does not recur.
The BJP’s J&K unit chief Ravinder Raina and senior party leaders, Kavinder Gupta, Devender Singh Rana and Surjeet Singh Slathia separately visited the Narayana Hospital at Katra where the injured were admitted. They enquired about the well being of the injured devotees and asked the Hospital administration to take special care of them. Expressing sadness over the incident, Raina said that the administration is probing the incident and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is himself monitoring the situation and continuously seeking the feedback from them.
BJP spokespersons Rajiv Jasrotia & Y V Sharma, executive body member Raman Suri and Convener Trade & Industries Cell (J&K) of the Party Sham Lal Langer expressed grief and shock over the incident. They expressed their condolences to the bereaved families and prayed for the speedy recovery of those injured in the incident. Suri also sought probe into the incident to that the guilty can be punished.
“Deeply saddened by the news from #matavaishnodevi. My condolences to the families of all those who lost their lives in the stampede & prayers for the quick & complete recovery of all those injured, National Conference (NC) vice president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah wrote on Twitter.
NC chief Farooq Abdullah said it was an extremely tragic incident at the holy place and expressed the hope that authorities will swiftly identify the causes and address them. Party provincial president Jammu Rattan Lal Gupta also expressed grief over the unfortunate incident resulting into demise of 12 pilgrims.
Former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad expressed his heartfelt grief on the tragic incident of stampede. He demanded adequate compensation to the family members of those deceased and proper medical attention to those who injured.
“Deeply shocked to learn of the unfortunate stampede at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine, resulting into death and injury to several pilgrims,” said Congress veteran and former MP Dr Karan Singh. He expressed his sympathies with the families of those who lost their lives and prayed for the rapid recovery of the injured.
JKPCC president Ghulam Ahmad Mir and senior Congress leader Yogesh Sawhney also expressed their heartfelt condolences to bereaved families and prayed for speedy recovery of those injured in stampede.
“I am also saddened by the tragic accident at Vaishno Devi & neither the administration nor the police are carrying out their duties. Instead, they are engrossed in threatening people into silence. My condolences to the families of those who lost their lives,” PDP president Mehbooba Mufti tweeted.
Expressing shock over the incident, PDP leaders in a joint statement said, “It is not an accident but a man-made tragedy because those at the helm of the affairs are responsible for the first-ever stampede at the holy cave shrine”. They demanded a high level probe into incident.
Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari said the incident was unfortunate and expressed his condolences to the bereaved families. “I am deeply pained to learn about the tragic incident of loss of precious lives due to stampede in #MataVaishnoDevi Bhawan, #Katra. A very unfortunate incident, my heartfelt condolences to bereaved families and prayers for speed recovery of injured,” Bukhari said.
Earlier, a delegation of Apni Party led by senior vice-president Ghulam Hassan Mir and comprising general secretary Vikram Malhotra, Arun K Chibber and Youth Wing leaders Raqeeq Khan, Tariq Mohi-ud-din, Vipul Bali and Shabir Kohli visited Narayana Hospital and enquired about the condition of the devotees wounded in the stampede.
The working committee of J&K National Panthers Party (JKNPP) expressed deep sorrow on the shocking deaths and injuries to the pilgrims at the Mata Vaishno Devi. Prof Bhim Singh (president JKNPP) urged the President of India to appoint at least 3 sitting judges of the High Court to go into the details so that truth may prevail about the reasons behind this tragedy.
Shiv Sena J&K president and CPI(M) Regional Secretary (Jammu) Hari Singh also expressed grief over the unfortunate incident. They urged the administration to provide free of cost treatment to injured and ex-gratia to the families of deceased. Sahni also went to Narayana Hospital at Kakrayal and met with the injured persons.
Hinduist BJP leader Raju Chandel paid tribute to the departed souls and demanded the Government to give ten lakh rupees as ex-gratia to the next of kin of the deceased. He also sought a high level inquiry into this incident.
While expressed condolences to the families of the deceased pilgrims who were killed in the stampede, DDC Member Suchetgarh Taranjit Singh Tony said, “This is complete failure of LG administration and there is need to fix responsibility for these unfortunate deaths.”
Senior leaders of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Amit Kapoor and Rajesh Gupta also expressed grief over the death of 12 people in the stampede.
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