Concert stampede: Complex security in-charge gets bail

Major (r) Saleem says stampede caused by bomb scare.

LAHORE:

Additional District and Sessions Judge Shahida Saeed on Wednesday confirmed the after-arrest bail of Major (retired) Muhammad Saleem, who was in charge of security at the Alhamra Cultural Complex two weeks ago when three girls were killed and six injured in a stampede following a concert.

The judge confirmed his bail against surety of Rs100,000. Saleem contended that he bore no responsibility for the deaths at the concert for students of the Punjab Group of Colleges on January 9. He said that the stampede was caused by a boy who shouted that there was a bomb in the arena, causing panic. He said that there was no negligence on the part of the college administration or venue security.

The complainant in the case, Naseem Abbas Malik, lost his daughter Maheen in the stampede and named Saleem, Agha Tahir Saleem (principal of the college) and Muhammad Iqbal, security guard of the college, as accused. The case was registered at Gulberg police station under Sections 322 and 337/L2 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Malik said that at the end of the concert, the main exit of the venue was not opened and instead the students were crammed into a narrow lane leading to a small side exit. He said that security guards deputed by the college administration started pushing back at the crowd and then began swinging their batons, causing the stampede in the crowd of “more than one thousand girls”. He accused the respondents of negligence.

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Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2012.