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Una, Mar 25: Amidst the Holi celebrations, a tragic incident unfolded in Himachal Pradesh where two devotees were killed while seven others sustained injuries following a stampede at a shrine due to a landslide in Una district on Monday.
Located around 40 km from Una, Dera Baba Vadbhag Singh in Mairi village of Amb subdivision in Una district is visited by a large number of people seeking a cure for people possessed by "evil spirits.”
The devotees who had come to take part in the Baba Vadbhag Singh fair were taking a bath in the holy spring in Charan Ganga around 5 am when four-five big stones came sliding down from the mountain following a landslide, police said.
Bathing in Charan Ganga is considered sacred, and there was a lot of crowd at the holy feet of Ganga on Monday due to the full moon.
Seeing the stones rolling down from the mountain, people started moving, and there was a stampede, causing injuries to nine devotees.
All the injured were rushed to Civil Hospital Amb for treatment, where two devotees succumbed to their injuries. The deceased were identified as Billa and Balveer Chand, residents of Faridkot, Punjab, the officials added.
The police sent the bodies for a postmortem. Five of the injured have been sent to Una Zonal Hospital, while two were referred to PGI Chandigarh.
ASP Sanjeev Bhatia said that the devotees who have been injured are under treatment.
Deputy Commissioner, Una, Jatin Lal, said that devotees will not be allowed to take baths in the holy feet of Ganga until the situation becomes normal.
Statements of eyewitnesses present at the incident site will also be recorded so that the real reasons for the accident can be known, said SP Una Rakesh Singh.
