Delhi railway station stampede: Search for loved ones continues for many

Gupteshwar Yadav was walking around the railway station with a passport-sized photo of his wife, asking every passerby whether they had seen her anywhere

Gupteshwar Yadav, a resident of Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, was walking around New Delhi railway station with a passport-sized photograph of his wife Tara Devi, desperately asking every passerby whether they had seen her anywhere.

Several people were still looking for their loves ones even hours after Saturday’s stampede. (Arvind Yadav/HT photo)

He, along with Tara and his brother Cheteshwar, was headed to Prayagraj to attend the Maha Kumbh and arrived at the New Delhi station on Saturday night when they got caught in the stampede — in which at least 18 people would eventually die — and were separated.

The situation at the station somewhat stabilised by 11.30pm, according to railway authorities. Yadav and his brother managed to reunite, and have since been looking for Tara.

“The crowd was such that we got separated and I lost my wife. After the crowd somewhat dispersed, my brother and I have been searching for my wife but have not found any information about her. We even went to Lok Nayak hospital,” Yadav said.

Some others who are still missing were not even headed towards the Kumbh Mela. Md Mujeeb said his brother Nadeem, 28, was headed to Bihar via the Swatantrata Senani Express, which was to depart from platform number 13.

“He has not reached. I tried calling him, but there has been no response. I have been checking hospitals in Delhi, but have not found any information yet,” Mujeeb said.

While some witnessed the stampede first-hand, others at the station only got to know about it as people started running out of the station.

Shatrughan Kumar, 28, said he had dropped off his sister Sunita Kumari, 23, at the station at around 10.30pm. She was to board a train to Prayagraj from platform 14.

“After I dropped off my sister, there was some commotion at the station, and we heard that something untoward had occurred at platform 14 or 15. There were even rumours of a bomb blast. We could not move towards the platforms as the station was jam-packed,” he said.

The 28-year-old has been searching for his sister since then, holding up her picture to ask all and sundry, but has received no information on her whereabouts or the hospital that she may have possibly been taken to.

At nearby Lok Nayak hospital, 30-year-old Shyam Kumar was in despair: he had been looking for his sister-in-law Suneeta Devi since morning.

“She left for Kumbh with a neighbour… They got the train tickets at the last moment, and we went to drop her off. After 15 minutes, we received news of a stampede, and have been looking for her since then. My brother is inside the hospital, asking every doctor about her. Nobody is telling us what happened. Her name is not on the list of deceased, and no government helpline is working. What do we do?” he said.