Karachi: At least 20 people, most of them
women and children, were killed and several others injured
today in a stampede during the distribution of free rations to
people in this Pakistani port city.
Hundreds of women had gathered for the free rations
that were being distributed by a trader to mark the holy month
of Ramadan. Police and civil officials said the stampede
occurred because adequate arrangements had not made for the
orderly distribution of rations.
Twenty people were killed in the stampede in the
congested Khori Garden area in the old quarters of Karachi,
SSP Abdullah Shaikh told reporters. He said Chaudhry Iftikhar
Mohammad, the trader who had organised the distribution of
rations, had been arrested.
Officials said most of the deaths were caused by
suffocation. An emergency was declared in hospitals across the
city. People rushed the dead and injured to hospitals in
private vehicles and trucks before rescue workers reached
the site.
"The women and children ran when unidentified men
started baton-charging the people who had gathered for the
rations," a witness said. A number of women were injured when
they slipped and fell from stairs leading to the building
where the rations were being distributed.
Bureau Report
