Kolkata, 18 October

In a cruel twist of fate, pandal-hopping at the Chorbagan Durga Puja in Kolkata on a festive Saptami evening gave way to grief for a lifetime for many, who lost their loved ones in a tragic stampede that killed 19 people.

Twenty-five others were injured in the stampede at the pandal in north Kolkata, following a crowd surge amid rain on Saturday evening. Of the dead, 13 were women and two minors.

A rickshaw-puller, crying inconsolably, said he was at work on the fateful evening when he got the news of his daughter being fatally injured, and rushed to the Kolkata Medical College and Hospital with his wife.

"Durga Puja will never come in our lives again; we have lost our Durga," said the distraught father of 17-year-old Barnali Halder.

"Every year during Durga Puja, my daughter will come alive in my heart," he said.

Barnali, a student of Class-11, had gone pandal-hopping with six of her friends, he said.

"My daughter and another girl could not make it, while the others in the group managed to escape," he said.

The resident of Gauranganagar in New Town said those in charge of crowd management should have been more active when the number of visitors swelled, maintaining that it was difficult for people to find their way out of the dimly-lit pandal during the rush.

Saurav Mondal, who stays in Kumartuli, lost his mother Mithu Mondal in the tragedy.

"In the melee, my mother and I fell down. At one point, I felt I would not be able to come out alive as several people had fallen atop us," he said.

Saurav said a police officer managed to pull him out.

"My mother died on the spot," he said, lamenting that there were “very few” police personnel and volunteers inside the pandal.

A woman from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur lost her husband in the stampede, family members said.

"They arrived in Kolkata on Saturday morning to be a part of the Durga Puja festivities in the city for the first time, but little did they know that this would turn out to be their last," said a family member, at whose home the couple had lunch before visiting the Chorbagan pandal.

The Chorbagan Durga Puja, popular among revellers for its theme-based pandals, is situated off the arterial Chittaranjan Avenue in north Kolkata and lies in the vicinity of several other well-known community pujas.