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WORLD NEWS Thursday 30 January 2025
Police say at least 30 people have died in a stampede at the

massive Maha Kumbh festival in India

By RAJESH KUMAR SINGH elected official, Yogi Ad- tal, desperate for news of 150 million people have al- preferential treatment for
and SHEIKH SAALIQ ityanath, said in a televised missing loved ones. Clothes, ready attended, including politicians and celebrities.
Associated Press statement. blankets and backpacks Defense Minister Rajnath “The government should
PRAYAGRAJ, India (AP) — The event’s main draw were strewn around the site Singh and Home Minister make better arrangements
At least 30 people were is the thousands of ash- of the stampede. Amit Shah and celebrities to meet the needs of com-
killed and many more in- smeared Hindu ascetics Millions continued to like Coldplay’s Chris Martin. mon devotees,” Indian
jured in a stampede at who make massive proces- throng the 4,000-hectare A sprawling tent city has opposition leader Rahul
the world’s largest religious sions toward the conflu- (15-square mile) pilgrimage been built on the riverbanks Gandhi wrote on social
gathering early Wednes- ence to bathe. site despite the stampede, to accommodate the mil- platform X. The 45-day fes-
day, police said, as millions Indian authorities took even as police urged them lions of visitors, with roads, tival is a significant cultural
of pilgrims rushed to dip in more than 16 hours to re- over megaphones to avoid electricity and water, 3,000 event for India’s Hindus,
sacred waters during the lease casualty figures, even the confluence. Aditya- kitchens and 11 hospitals. who make up nearly 80%
Maha Kumbh festival in as Prime Minister Narendra nath urged people to take About 50,000 security per- of the country’s more than
northern India. Modi acknowledged the baths at other riverbanks sonnel are stationed in the 1.4 billion people. It’s also
Police officer Vaibhav Krish- loss of lives, calling the inci- instead. city to maintain law and or- a prestige event for Modi,
na in Prayagraj city said dent “extremely sad” and “The situation is now under der and manage crowds, whose ruling party boasts
another 60 injured were extending his condolences. control, but there is a mas- and more than 2,500 cam- of promoting Hindu cultural
rushed to hospitals. “Suddenly there was push- sive crowd of pilgrims,” Ad- eras monitor crowd move- symbols. The Maha Kumbh
Wednesday was a sacred ing in the crowd, and we ityanath said, adding that ment and density so of- festival has had stampedes
day in the six-week Hindu got trapped. A lot of us fell 90 million to 100 million pil- ficials can try to prevent in the past. In 2013, at least
festival, and authorities ex- down and the crowd went grims were at the site. such crushes. 40 pilgrims who were tak-
pected a record 100 million uncontrolled,” the Press About 30 million people Several opposition leaders ing part in the festival were
devotees to engage in a Trust of India news agen- had taken the holy bath by criticized the federal and killed in a stampede at a
ritual bath at the conflu- cy quoted pilgrim Sarojini 8 a.m. Wednesday, he said. the state government, both train station in Prayagraj.
ence of the Ganges, the Security officers carry a woman out from the site of a stampede at the Sangam, the confluence of Deadly stampedes are
Yamuna and the mythical the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, on “Mauni Amavasya” or new moon relatively common around
Saraswati rivers. Hindus be- day during the Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. Indian religious festivals,
lieve that a dip at the holy Associated Press where large crowds gath-
site can cleanse them of er in small areas. In July
past sins and end the pro- at least 116 people died,
cess of reincarnation. as saying. “There was no The Maha Kumbh festival, led by Modi’s Hindu nation- most of them women and
The stampede happened chance for escape, there held every 12 years, started alist Bharatiya Janata party, children, when thousands
when pilgrims tried to jump was pushing from all sides,” on Jan. 13. Authorities ex- and blamed the stampede at a religious gathering in
barricades erected for a she said. pect more than 400 million on “mismanagement” and northern India stampeded
procession of holy men, Distressed families lined up people to throng the pil- “VIP culture” the latter re- at a tent camp in Hathras
Uttar Pradesh state’s top outside a makeshift hospi- grimage site in total. Nearly ferring to what they say is town.q

Leader of rebels who toppled Syrian President Bashar Assad is

named country’s interim president

By ABBY SEWELL and OMAR Ghani, the state-run SANA years al-Sharaa has sought patchwork of former rebel out an autonomous en-
ALBAM news agency said. to cast himself as a cham- groups, each with their clave early in Syria’s civil
Associated Press Abdul Ghani also an- pion of pluralism and toler- own leaders and ideology. war, never fully siding with
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — nounced the cancelation ance. Even knottier is the question the Assad government or
The leader of Syria’s for- of the country’s constitu- The United States had pre- of the U.S.-backed Kurdish the rebels seeking to top-
mer rebels who toppled tion passed in 2012 under viously placed a $10 mil- groups that have carved ple him. q
President Bashar Assad Assad’s rule and said al- lion bounty on al-Sharaa
last month was named the Sharaa would be autho- but canceled it last month
country’s interim president rized to form a temporary after a U.S. delegation vis-
on Wednesday as former legislative Council until a ited Damascus and met
insurgents also cancelled new constitution is drafted. with him. Since Assad’s fall,
the existing constitution, He also announced the dis- HTS has become the de
saying a new charter would solution of the armed fac- facto ruling party and has
be drafted soon. tions in the country, which set up an interim govern-
The appointment of Ahmad he said would be absorbed ment largely composed of
al-Sharaa, a rebel once into state institutions. officials from the local gov-
aligned with al-Qaida, as Al-Sharaa, formerly known ernment it previously ran in
the country’s president “in as Abu Mohammed al-Go- rebel-held Idlib province.
the transitional phase,” lani, is the leader of Hayat As the former Syrian army
came after a meeting of Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist collapsed with Assad’s
the insurgents in Damas- former insurgent group that downfall, al-Sharaa has
cus, the Syrian capital. The led the lightning offensive called for creation of a new
announcement was made that toppled Assad last unified national army and Syria’s de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as
by the spokesperson for Syr- month. The group was once security forces, but ques- Abu Mohammed al-Golani, walks in the presidential palace
ia’s new, de facto govern- affiliated with al-Qaida but tions have loomed over ahead of his meeting with Walid Ellafi, Libyan minister of state
ment’s military operations has since denounced its how the interim administra- for communication and political affairs, in Damascus, Dec. 28,
sector, Col. Hassan Abdul former ties, and in recent tion can bring together a 2024.
Associated Press