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Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister has apologised to all people of Karnataka after 10 people were killed and many injured in a stampede during an event to welcome the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) team at Chinnaswamy stadium after their historic win against Punjab. He however said that he would not blame the police for the events that took place.
“I think this is not a controllable crowd. I apologise to all the people of Bengaluru and Karnataka, we wanted to take a procession, but the crowd was uncontrollable," Shivakumar said. Speaking about the difficulty the police had in controlling the crowds, he said that they had planned for around 5,000 young people gathering near the stadium and they could not lathi-charge to control them.
“This (crowd) was so much more than that,” he said, while refusing to comment on the deaths of fans. Shivakumar also said the government took a call to decline permission for an open van for the team.
“I will not blame the police. They went beyond their strength. Looking at the situation, we did not take too long for the (Vidhana Soudha) programme. We wrapped it up in 10 minutes,” Shivakumar said.
Nasser Ahmed, the Political Secretary to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told the media that the crowd was uncontrollable, and the government did not get time to make arrangements.
“It was an unexpected crowd, nobody could visualise that such a big crowd would come. The match was yesterday and today, at a very short time, but our best possible arrangement can be made,” he said.
Opposition leaders, meanwhile, have slammed the Congress government for not making adequate arrangements. On June 3 night, as RCB won the match, lakhs of people had descended on the streets of Bengaluru. The opposition has asked why the government did not anticipate such huge numbers.