The police gave a no objection certificate' for the Dussehra event here but the organisers held it without seeking the required permission from municipal authorities, officials said Saturday, a day after a train mowed down at least 59 revellers.
In their letter seeking the certificate, the organisers had also asked for security arrangements, citing the expected presence of Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and his wife, former MLA Navjot Kaur Sidhu, at the event.
But eyewitnesses complained the arrangements for the safety of people at the ground along the tracks near Joda Phatak were not adequate.
"Why did the government not ensure proper security arrangements? Why was such a function allowed to take place near the railway tracks?" asked Sujit Singh.
Funeral pyres were lit at city's cremation grounds Saturday for 39 of those killed when a train from Jalandhar tore through people standing on the tracks for a better view of Ravana going up in flames.
Railway officials said no permission was sought from them either, and ruled out any inquiry by the department into what they said was the worst accident due to trespass on railway tracks.
Amid a blame game over the accident, the Government Railway Police (GRP) registered an FIR against unknown persons and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh announced a magisterial inquiry, which will submit its report within four weeks.
Singh, who visited the accident site and the hospitals where the injured are admitted, said 59 people were killed and 57 injured. Sub-divisional magistrate Rajesh Sharma, however, said 61 people died.
Crowds gathered outside the hospitals and squatted on the tracks in protest Saturday.
Tensions ran high as the police, which barricaded the area, tried chasing them away from the railway line.
Some people also hurled stones at the house of Saurabh Madan Mithu, son of Congress councillor Vijay Madan, whose family organised the event.
Both have not been seen after the tragedy.
Amritsar Deputy Commissioner of Police Amrik Singh Powar said the organisers were given a no objection certificate' on the condition that they also get permission from the municipal corporation and the pollution department.
The Amritsar Municipal Corporation distanced itself from the tragedy.
"Nobody was given permission for organising the Dussehra event. Moreover, nobody had applied for the permission with the Amritsar Municipal Corporation," Commissioner Sonali Giri said here.
Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani, who visited the spot at midnight, said the railways was not informed about the gathering of people.
"At midsections (between level crossings), trains run at their assigned speed and people are not expected to be on the tracks. At midsections, there is no railway staff posted, he said.
Opposition parties, including the Akali Dal, BJP and AAP, demanded strict action against those who allowed the event, harping on Navjot Kaur Sidhu's presence on the dais.
A video clip on social media appeared to indicate that those on the dais could see people standing on the railway tracks.
By morning, the tracks had been cleared of the bodies and the body parts that were strewn after the accident.
Angry slogans like Congress government hai hai were heard in the locality near Joda Phatak and loud cries broke the silence outside the hospitals.
It was a night of unspeakable horrors, said Vijay Kumar, who lost his 18-year-old son Manish.
A WhatsApp photograph of a severed head had flashed on his phone screen at 3 am, confirming his worst fears. His son was one of those killed.
His younger son Ashish returned safely, said Kumar, but the frantic search for Manish ended with that 'ping' on his phone. He has since been roaming from hospital to hospital looking for the remains of his elder son.
A leg was found and one hand, but they are not Manish's.
"My son was wearing blue jeans. This one is not wearing blue jeans. I have lost my world," an inconsolable Kumar said outside the Guru Nanak Hospital where most of the injured were taken.
People milled around the hospital compound, some stunned into silence by the enormity of the tragedy that felled their loved ones and others holding back tears.
Among those admitted at the hospital was Sapna, who was on a WhatsApp call with her husband to relay the 'Ravana Dahan' live to him, when the accident took place.
The 30-year-old, who suffered head injuries, said she saw body parts scattered around the tracks and a severed head.
"When the effigy was set afire, people started moving away from the stage and towards the tracks," she said.
Sapna lost her cousin and her one-year-old niece, who she said were not crushed by the train but in the stampede that followed.
Jagunandan, a 40-year-old wage labourer from Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, who suffered injuries in the head and leg, said he was not standing near the tracks but was pushed as people started running away after the effigy was set afire.
Most of the injured said they could not hear the horn of the approaching train. They said another train had passed moments earlier.
The sound of the firecrackers as the effigy came down and the speeding train led to commotion, triggering a stampede like situation, they said.
Train traffic in the area was hit with 37 trains being cancelled and 16 trains diverted.
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