Pakistan: Stampedes at free flour centres leaves two people, including an old woman, dead

The deceased woman was identified as Naseem Akhter.

The stampedes occurred amid mismanagement   at distribution points.

The old woman who came to collect free flour died in a stampede while 45 women received injuries of various types at a flour distribution centre at the Quaid-i-Azam Stadium during the early hours of Tuesday, reports Dawn News.

There was reportedly a technical glitch with the app used to verify the beneficiaries and it stopped working. This resulted in a great rush of people at free flour distribution who got frustrated due to the long wait for the system to restart working.

It is said the app link remained down and did not restart for three to four hours and there were more than 1,500 women present in the stadium who had come to receive flour. The stadium has one of the biggest flour distribution points in the city.

Many women blamed the police for causing the mayhem at the centre, saying though there was a rush of people, the situation was calm until the Civil Lines policemen deputed at the centre started manhandling and baton-charging the citizens. The stampede occurred due to the disorder.

An eyewitness told Dawn News that the administration’s app went down and the people started shouting in discomfort stuck in the rush and long queues.

Police tried to calm the situation but instead of normalising the situation, they started baton charge while the women were seen being slapped and pushed by the policemen, which infuriated the crowd further, leading to the worsening of the situation and a stampede, the eye witness said.

Adnan Shamas of the Rescue 1122 official told Dawn more around six emergency vehicles and staff treated the injured women and men. Twenty-five injured women were shifted to the Sahiwal Teaching Hospital for further medical treatment while the rest were provided first aid on the spot.