Flour distribution stampede leaves 2 dead

F.P. Report

SAHIWAL: A stamped during free flour distribution here left two women dead and 45 others injured. Rescue sources said that nineteen injured persons were shifted to DHQ teaching hospital Sahiwal for medical attendance.

The incident took place owing to mismanagement and flawed arrangements for free wheat flour distribution among under-previliged persons.

Police and district management officials rushed to the spot after report of the incident. It is pertinent to mention here that free of cost wheat flour being distributed among people under special Ramazan package announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The package is the first of its kind aimed at facilitating the poor population.

In an earlier stampede at a flour distribution point in Faisalabad last week an elderly man had died who came to get free flour from a distribution point. Rescue sources said that Muhammad Kaleem was found unconscious at the Park’s main gate. He was taken to General Hospital Samanabad where he took his last breath.

In a free ration distribution stampede in 2016 several women were injured in Karachi. In September 2016 an act of charity turned into a tragedy near Karachi’s Khori Garden when a stampede caused the death of 20 women and girls who had thronged to an outlet where a wholesaler was giving out food items for free. Jodia Bazaar, the city’s biggest wholesale market, saw heart-wrenching scenes of poor families retrieving bodies instead of ration sacks after organisers of the free distribution were overwhelmed by the needy persons. (INP)