TIRUCHY: The Rajya Sabha MP and Makkal Needhi Maiam president, actor Kamal Haasan, on Monday said that this is not the time to complain about the issues or applaud the timely rescue and relief works, pointing out that the bereaved families need solace. He added that his visit to Karur was to tell them that they aren’t alone.

Kamal Haasan arrived in Karur around 4.10 pm, along with the former minister and MLA V Senthilbalaji and visited the Light House Corner area and Uzhavar Sandhai, where the TVK was denied permission, before the party chose Velusamy Puram. He then visited the stampede site and took a look at the piles of footwear and other signs of the stampede. Subsequently, he went to the house of Guru Vishnu, a two-year-old boy who died in the stampede and paid a floral tribute to the portrait.

While speaking to reporters, Kamal Haasan said that he had come to console the bereaved families, and therefore, the time had not yet come to raise complaints. “We wish them justice and solace from the grief,” he said.

Appealing to the people and the media to spare the families, Kamal Haasan said that they had undergone untold trauma. Let them breathe fresh air from now on, he said. “We wish such incidents would never happen. We thank the police for refusing permission at Light House Corner and the Uzhavar Sandhai area. Had they given permission, the toll would be unimaginable,” Kamal Haasan said.