30 Sep, New Delhi: The Secretary-General of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Dr. Mohammad Salim Engineer expressed sorrow at the death of 22 persons in a stampede on an overcrowded foot overbridge in Mumbai and offered condolences to the relatives of the deceased.

The incident took place yesterday when the overbridge, linking Elphinstone Road and Parel suburban stations, became overcrowded with people taking shelter from a heavy downpour.

Salim Engineer appealed to the government to quickly dispense the compensation announced to the kin of the deceased and provide free medical care to the injured. The JIH Secretary General added: ”it should be noted that the state government and the railway authorities did not have adequate crowd control mechanism in place which resulted in a high number of casualties. Media reports suggest that the matter was already brought to the notice of the state government and yet no action was taken to mitigate the risk the narrow overbridge posed, that was used regularly by lakhs of people. We demand that the inquiry instituted by the government should be made public and immediate steps should be taken to prevent the recurrence of such accidents in the future’’.

Issued by

Media Department

Jamaat-e-Islami Hind