Faith supersedes fear, pilgrims continue with the holy dip

Despite the stampede, which stalled bathing in the Sangam nose area for nearly three hours on Wednesday during the second Amrit Snan of the Mahakumbh on 'Mauni Amavasya', faith superseded fear as devotees continued to take the holy dip at all 48 bathing ghats of the Mela area all through the day.

- Kenneth John and Pawan Dixit

MAHAKUMBH NAGAR: Despite the stampede, which stalled bathing in the Sangam nose area for nearly three hours on Wednesday during the second Amrit Snan of the Mahakumbh on 'Mauni Amavasya', faith superseded fear as devotees continued to take the holy dip at all 48 bathing ghats of the Mela area all through the day.

Till 10 am, 3.61 crore faithful had bathed in Triveni Sangam and the number rose to 4.24 crore by 12 noon, 5.04 crore by 2 pm and 7.64 crore by evening. On January 28, around 5.50 crore devotees had taken the holy dip, as per official records.

'The dip in holy waters of Sangam was satisfying and worth the trouble faced to reach Sangam. I saw the belongings of devotees strewn all over the area at Sangam nose testifying the severity of the stampede. Feel sorry for the devotees who became victims of crowd pressure,' said Harish Ghatge, who had arrived with his family of four from Belgaum (Karnataka).