Sad news coming out of Karachi states that up to 20 people, mostly women and children died in a stampede in narrow lanes of Khori Garden area. A local businessman was distributing free wheat flour among the poor and needy of the society.
Due to overcrowding of narrow lanes, a stampede occured and the result was up to 20 deaths of women and children that were all preventable. I also want to add a line that I saw from author MB at Karachi Metroblogs: “This is humiliation to Humanity coming at its best” (read as “worst”). Very sad. Since Pakistan’s independence I’ve not heard of so many people losing their lives while trying to get food.
The dawn News update right now gives details as follows:
‘We have so far received 20 bodies of women and girls while the injured are more than 30,’ Amin Khan, an official at Civil Hospital Karachi, told AFP.
City police chief Wasim Ahmed said at least 18 women and children died in the stampede with dozens of others injured.
‘The deaths were caused by suffocation and the stampede in one of the most congested localities of Khori Garden, where a charity was distributing free flour among hundreds of women and children during Ramadan,’ he added.
Women clad in black burkas sobbed and wailed as ambulances screeched through the streets, ferrying the bodies and injured to hospital, where panicked relatives searched for their loved ones and dead bodies lay covered in sheets.
‘I have lost my little daughter,’ cried Karima in hospital. ‘I wanted a bag of flour for my family and my greed punished me so gravely,’ she sobbed.
A private security guard responsible for making sure the women formed an orderly queue baton charged the women when they became impatient with the long wait, said police and witnesses.
‘The women got scared and tried to save themselves… which caused the stampede,’ said local police official Hashmat Ali.
Injured Salma Qadir said the women wanted to get their rations quickly but were beaten by a guard.
‘The women scared and tried to turn back, which scared others and resulted in a stampede,’ she told AFP.
Several dozen women’s shoes, sandals and slippers were left lying on the road outside the distribution place in Khori Garden, a warren of narrow lanes and side streets ill equipped for large crowds, an AFP reporter said.
‘Fortunately, my mother and sister have survived and I am searching for their shoes and scarves here,’ said teenager Mohammad Kashif.
Shops in the area closed as a sign of mourning after the tragedy as women and children wailed outside the crowded emergency ward of the Civil Hospital Karachi where bodies and the injured were transported.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered an immediate investigation into the incident and medical treatment for the injured in Karachi, a teeming city that is home to an estimated 14 million people.
Reference: Eyewitness Recounts at Dawn.com
Title Photo of this post is from Dawn.com
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sad……sad……………….sad…..it is
– it shows that even in their death we as Pakistaniis were not able to give them a descent last meal for these mothers and these children, the future Pakistan…..May there souls rest in Peace ….. a peace we did not provide them with.
Something throughly has to be done.
-a humble adam, with a bad taste in my mouth and a tear in mine eye.
I blame mis-management more than poverty here. In marriage parties where so many people come on thier own car, people just rush to get food pushing others. The same might have happened on a large scale. No doubt poverty is pervailing in the country, but we should find the correct reason to avoid this kind of incidents in the future. I also fear that people and charity organizations should not stop doing similar activities after this.
This kind of incidents happened even during Hajj where normally only rich people go. But Saudi Govt escaped such incidents by better management.
Allah guide us all and enable us to find solutions rather than mere blaming and cursing.
This incident reminds me of my last trip to Makkah in September 2008. I wrote about it on my blog. Here is a part of my experience.
I went to Makkah and Medina during Ramadan for Umrah. Makkah has five star hotels around the Haram which charge 900 dollars (72000 Rs) per night during Ramadan and they were all fully booked. Just a few yards from these hotels, I took 100 packets of juice and fruit to handout one Iftar time. I was mobbed. People came from all directions to get a packet of juice, a banana, and and an orange. I could not have imagined the poverty in the great Saudi Arabia which is milking the world with 80-145 dollars (6400 – 11500 Rs) per barrel for the oil. I was so upset at lack of dignity these people have to suffer in a rich state that I could not bring myself to do it again. I also remember the solemn and sad faces of Pakistani and Bengladeshi cleaning crew with green and orange uniforms cleaning the roads and courtyard outside the Haram in 125 degree heat for a mere 130 dollars (10400 Rs) per month. I was ashamed for all Muslims, including me, for tolerating this situation in the land of Prophet Mohammad and Abu Bakar who spent nights looking for needy persons.
For complete article visit:
http://reluctantexpatriate.blogspot.com/2008/10/sa udis-real-satans-of-world.html
the sad part is that it was some private organization/individual trying to help. poor planning.
Tehseen, I don’t know the details but from a distant view that I get by reading news tells me the philanthropist should not have arranged free-food distribution in narrow lanes area unless he did not expect a large crowd would show up for free food. It should’ve been done in open space. This is the basics of crowd safety.