Pray for India

Demon worship has a price. We are watching the effects once again as the misguided souls worship demonic forces.

A request has gone out for prayer as we become aware of the dangers faced by India's Christians. Pray for the souls who need Salvation and a way out a way of escape from the prevailing cultural taboos.

Like lambs to the slaughter.

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A stampede at a hill-top temple in western India killed more than 147 people and wounded 55 others who had gathered to celebrate the start of a religious holiday on Tuesday, police said.

Victims of the stampede near an Indian Hindu temple are carried away from the scene.

More than 25,000 devotees were trying to reach the 15th-century temple through a steep and narrow pathway when the stampede occurred around dawn Tuesday, officials said.

The Chamunda Devi temple is located inside a fort atop a hill in Jodhpur, the second-largest city and a popular tourist destination in the Indian state of Rajasthan.

Authorities do not know what prompted the rush, but state Police Chief K.S. Bains rejected as "baseless" reports that it was triggered by rumors of a bomb.

"But one thing is clear that a cascading effect did take place as it was a slope where it happened," he said.

India has been on edge in recent days after a string of deadly bombings across the country.

The crowd had gathered to celebrate the start of Navaratri or nine nights. For nine nights and 10 days, Hindus worship the various forms of a Hindu goddess.

Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria told reporters that police had planned for the event and deployed "enough" officers for crowd control. But the massive numbers overwhelmed them.

Following the stampede, devotees -- some in blood-soaked shirts -- carried the limp bodies of victims on to police vehicles, while emergency officials frantically tried to tend to the wounded.

Temple stampedes are not uncommon in India during religious festivals.

Last month, more than 130 people were killed when panicked worshippers tried to flee a crowded mountaintop Hindu temple in northern India. That stampede, which occurred on the second day of a nine-day religious festival at the Naina Devi Temple in Himachal Pradesh state, apparently was triggered by a false rumor of a landslide on the hill above the crowd.

And in January 2005, more than 250 people were trampled to death during a pilgrimage in the western state of Maharashtra