SUKKUR:
Five people were killed and many others were injured when a stampede broke out on Saturday in the main procession in Rohri.
The procession has been organised for the last 500 years and thousands of people come to Rohri to participate. This year, extra security arrangements were in place: all the entry and exit points to the procession were sealed with barbed wire. People were allowed to enter after they had been checked for concealed weapons.
Despite this, tragedy did strike. As soon as the main procession started from Masjid Shah-e-Iraq, thousands of mourners waiting impatiently for the replica of Karbala to appear, rushed to touch it. As a result, dozens of mourners fell and were trampled. The injured were rushed to taluka hospital, where five of them died. The dead men were identified as Aamir Bhatti, Najaf Ali Shah, Tasleem Raza Shah, Abdur Razzaq and Dildar Shah.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2012.
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