The stampede that killed three girls on Monday as they exited the Alhamra Cultural Complex after attending the Atif Aslam concert was caused when the crowd exiting was told by boys passing by that a bomb was planted at the concert venue, said administration officials of the Punjab Group of Colleges.
The bowl shaped open air Alhamra Cultural Complex was packed to capacity on Monday night. The concert was scheduled to end at 9 pm but it went on beyond that time. There was no police or Alhamra security inside where guards employed by Punjab Group of Colleges were taking care of the security.
When the concert ended, dozens of girls tried to approach Aslam for his autograph and were pushed back to make way for him. According to Punjab Group of Colleges administration officials, when Aslam left, one of the gates was opened for the girls to exit. When some of them had reached the main gate which is few dozen yards away from the Cultural Complex, some boys passing by claimed that a bomb had been planted at the concert venue. Some girls then rushed back believing the bomb was planted near the main gate. Meanwhile, those in the theater tried to hurry out. Some girls fell down in the melee. Three girls died in the stampede while several others were injured.
The administration, Alhamra officials and police all agree that one gate was opened for the girls to exit, however, the college administration and police differ on the number of students present at the time. “The event was only for the girls of Punjab Group of Colleges. The capacity of the Complex is around 4,500 but there were around 7,000 girls inside,” an official of Cultural Complex said. DIG Operations Ghulam Mahmood Dogar also confirmed that there were around 7,000 people inside.
Punjab Group of Colleges Public Relations Officer Tahira Qasim said there were around 3, 000 students. “We organise such events every year. On Monday it was for the girls only. No untoward incident has ever taken place. This is unfortunate. We have cancelled all our scheduled concerts and programmes,” she told The Express Tribune. She added that the loss was irreplaceable but the colleges would compensate the families.
Punjab Group of Colleges Campus 8 Principal Agha Tahir Ijaz said that two of the deceased were BCom students while one was in intermediate. “We are in touch with the families. None of them has initiated any legal action against us,” he maintained.
The police have registered a case under Sections 322 (whoever without any intention causes harm to another) and 337 (whoever does an act with the knowledge that it is likely to cause harm) of the Pakistan Penal Code in Gulberg Police Station. Ten people including security-in charge Major (retd) Saleem, his assistant Subedar Iqbal and eight guards of the college have been arrested. The principal has been nominated in the FIR, however, he hasn’t been arrested.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 11th, 2012.
COMMENTS (20)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1713853507-0/MalalaHilary-(2)1713853507-0-270x192.webp)
Ameen ..........even though she is shaheed ALLAH has forgiven her's And she's in paradise....................................... I am agree with ammar but the question is 3 dead 15 injured AND that she's will lose?????????? the mouth is then stopped by principle i feel dirty that i am student to punjab college after 10 jan 2012 the topic is close to every where the news paper the all news chanel because he afaird to face the truth....................IT IS THE CURSE OF BEING MUSLIMS.........SORRY IF YOU' RE BAD PEOPLE JUSTICE IS NOT SO HERE DOSE MONEY
@ammar:
Very rightly said Ammar. When we do sins then we expect that the angel of death will wait till we are finished with our sinful activities, but we ridiculously expect that the death will only come during those few minutes we spend while praying or doing some act of goodness.
@Ammar Is is for anyone to decide who is a good muslim and who isnt? It is very easy to start judging anyone when they are not going to reply back. None of us have any evidence suggesting these three girls were members of a satanic clan. They could have been the best of Muslims? All of that is not for us to decide. What precedence would we be starting by labelling others and their deeds? It is a tragic and unfortunate event. Accidents do happen. What would the value of life be, but not for death.. In a civilized society this would classify as a case of ''Manslaughter due to Criminal Negligence''. Instead of focusing on what caused the event, we have started debating Islamic values. Typical ...
@Sajid...
I've been through a few bomb hoaxes (and actual bombs) and what you don't know is that panic is your worst enemy in such a situation. The first thing 'certain people' would have told you as a kid is not to panic when in trouble but unfortunately you have probably forgotten that while I haven't and it has saved me and my friends on a number of occasions.
@Iqra... Perhaps you should spend more time studying rather than going to concerts and then you can come back and post in a meaningful way!
Yes it was a tragedy and may or may not have been fault of the boys(allegedly) who shouted BOMB... but the greater need is to educate the people on how to act in such a situation rather than asking for bigger concert halls and stuff. The bigger the concert hall the bigger the crowd will be and it will have a higher probability of such a tragedy occurring again unless the crowd is educated on how to behave when in such a situation.
If there was a bomb hoax in your home, would you run over your parents siblings children to save yourself or act sensibly and guide your dear ones?
Think of the other people in the same way!
Some people have died while singing songs, while others have died while reciting Qur'an, some people have faced death when a cinema hall catched fire while others faced Malikul Maut in a stampede during Hajj. Different people. Different Actions. Different ways of Dying.
Prophet Muhammad (Sall Allaahu 'Alaihi Wasallam) said: " A person dies the way he lives and will be resurrected the way he died."
How would we like to face death? While dancing in a disco or while in sujood in a masjid? While singing songs or reciting Qur'an? When its time the Angel of Death does not wait for us to come out of disco to take our souls. They reach wherever we are and do their task. Lets leave all the acts of Allaah's disobidience today, from Now itself. Because if our life will be spent in the obidience of Allaah then we will die as an obidient slave InshaAllaah.
Lets Wake up before we Never Wake up!
It only shows how unprepared and vulnerable humans are to death, I am sure none of these girls knew they were going to "attend" their own deaths. May Allah SWT make it easy for their families to bear the loss.
Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilaihi Ra'jiun
@double standard Most people especially men have a really weird and false image of Pakistani city girls that they go out to party every day, they are very social and trendy. the truth is most of them are not. Except a few upper class woman most Pakistani parents don't allow their daughters to go out without them except maybe to a friends shadi. Most woman can't even drive and are to afraid to catch taxis so really I agree with Afaaq completely.
Whatever, but its still better than actual explosion ... that would have killed dozens many
Regarding the post above. I did not bring Islam into the argument. My post was in reply to what i have seen on various Pakistani forums on the internet. For some reason only one half of my comments were posted, thus the vagueness. My implication was against people who are suggesting and criticizing that Allah SWT did this because they went on a concert, which i felt ridiculous. Secondly i have not portrayed a bizarre image of our society, its merely a reflection. Girls being outgoing has nothing to do with the backwardness of a huge segment of our society. Who will stare and look at other women and girls but forcefully cover their own from head to toe. Coming back to the topic, indeed it is a very sad and tragic event. The people responsible for causing all of this need to be punished and an example be set. Stampedes take place all over the world, it is not alien. Sad and unfortunate ...
boys need to all time fun just unka kasoor hai sub
My prayers go out to the families of the deceased girls - they never deserved this abrupt sorrow. This was indeed a sad incident.
I'm sure this teaches us all a lesson to some extent. The event management firms will take safety measures in future now. Oh, and government should think about building bigger arenas and performing halls now. Furthermore, I'm having a bad feeling about Akcent's concert! Just saying.
@trtk Stupid selfish girls?? I would like to see your reaction when somebody tells you there is a bomb planted in your office. I am sure you will run to save yourself. An extremely disgusting thing to do. Those boys should be punished.
yep blame it on the boys... not on the stupid/selfish girls who started running over each other and did not bother to stop and help their friends/fellows!
@Afaaq
sheer stupidity your comment reflects...1-it has nothing to do with islamic stuff I mean people know how things are being manipulated to get desired result and to get paradigm shift of clueless people ..2-you protrayed a very bizarre image of pakistan civil society ,looks like you are talking about afghanistan ..every body who lives in knows girls in cities are quite outgoing and know the trends ..
@ Afaaq
I read your statements and I simply do not understand how you have started to relate Islamic values to this tragic incident.
A very sad and tragic event. Instead of embroiling into a debate about the ''Islamic values'', I would recommend we stop judging people. Is that not what our religion teaches? The boys who caused this to happen need to be arrested and prosecuted. In our society girls have limited freedom and these events are the only time some girls get to hang out with their friends in a secure environment outside their houses. The sad part is girls are hounded throughout the country for stepping out of their houses, while we champion ourselves on being model Muslim folks. Even All Girls events are not safe anymore.
Very sad incident!