Pilgrims missing at India’s Kumbh Mela festival

By ITN News Editor February 6, 2019 13:22

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Distraught relatives searched for missing loved ones at the second “Shahi Snan”, at the ‘Kumbh Mela’ or Pitcher Festival in India’s northern city of Prayagraj. Authorities set up computerised camps to help reunite relatives and friends, with names of missing pilgrims flashed on LED screens and announced on loudspeakers installed at various places at the fair. The festival, which is more than 2,000-years-old, is a meeting point for Hindu “Sadhus”. It is traditionally held every three years in one of four cities along India’s sacred rivers, with one of the largest of those in Prayagraj. The event has its roots in a Hindu tradition that says the god Vishnu wrested a golden urn containing the nectar of immortality from demons.