Sonia condoles stampede deaths

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday condoled the death of women and children in a stampede at an ashram of a godman near Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh.

Ms. Gandhi expressed grief and conveyed her condolences to the bereaved families, a party statement said here.

63 people were killed in the stampede at an ashram near Pratapgarh on Thursday when a gate collapsed triggering panic among the 10,000-strong crowd that had converged for a ritual.

Over 100 persons were injured, 28 of them seriously, in the tragedy that occurred when poor farmers and villagers had gathered to receive food and clothes from Kripalu Maharaj’s ashram at Kunda.