Team Herald
PANJIM: A resident of Quepem, an eyewitness to the stampede at the Shree Lairai zatra in his first-hand account, revealed the tragic incident was triggered by lack of proper arrangements, failure of the police to control the massive crowd and the alleged unruly behaviour of a section of devotees.
Vishal Gauns Dessai, a resident of Avedem-Kothambi, Quepem, who attends the zatra each year said, “This year there was a massive turnout of devotees and somewhere the arrangement appeared to be poor. There was mismanagement. The attitude of some of the Dhonds, who often push and offend devotees while proceeding towards the fire walking ceremony has to change.”
According to him, the stampede occurred following verbal fights between two stall owners and another between a stall owner and a Dhond.
“Soon after the verbal clashes between the two stall owners ended, a massive group of persons headed towards the fire walking ceremony. Another fight broke out between a vendor and a Dhond where the former accused the latter of damaging his bulb with a cane which led to the altercation.”
“The devotees continued walking even as few cops were controlling the situation as the police higher-ups were escorting a VIP. These policemen could not control the massive crowd. Instead of using the ropes, the police should have used barricades. While the ropes may have been intended for convenience on the sloppy road, they offered little aid in managing the growing number of attendees. All this happened a few metres away from where we were standing and in a fraction of seconds chaos broke out,” he said. Terming the incident as unfortunate and sad, Dessai said the temple managing committee and the police should frame proper guidelines for devotees, particularly Dhonds.
He recommended prohibiting stalls on both sides of the road in the future to improve crowd management.
Having attended the zatra with two friends, Dessai expressed his shock at this unprecedented tragedy and is now reconsidering attending on the main zatra day in the future.