Multan tragedy: Stampede at PTI rally kills 7

PTI chief held DCO Zahid Saleem Gondal responsible for the tragedy.

MULTAN:

At least seven people were killed and more than 100 wounded in a stampede at the Ibne Qasim Bagh Stadium minutes after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf rally concluded.

The casualties were driven to Multan’s Nishtar Hospital where emergency director Dr Pervez Haider told The Express Tribune that seven people – all aged between 16 and 28 years – were received dead while 45 were admitted to the hospital in a critical condition. Up to 78 other PTI workers were discharged at the request of their families while some were receiving treatment at the emergency ward, he said.

According to witnesses and officials, the stampede was triggered at the end of the rally when thousands of PTI workers scrambled to the exit gates of the stadium which was full to its capacity. The stadium has eight exit gates – all but three were closed for security reasons.

Of the three gates, one was reserved for PTI leaders, the second for families and the third for young party activists, organisers and administration officials said. The commotion started when power supply to the families’ section went off and they moved towards the gate reserved for youngsters.

Some youngsters tried to climb the gate in an attempt to escape the hot and humid conditions inside the stadium. And the shoving and pushing resulted in the stampede. Rescue 1122 officials tried to control the situation by throwing water on the stampeding workers.

The administration had deployed 2,500 policemen for the security of the rally, but the arrangements were disorganised as participants were climbing onto the stage unchecked, though it was reserved for the PTI leadership.

Before the stampede, 18 PTI activists had fainted due to the hot and humid weather and congestion in the stadium. They were, however, shifted to ambulances outside the stadium while the speeches of PTI were ongoing.

PTI district president Ijaz Janjua told The Express Tribune that they had installed power generators as electricity supply was disconnected.

PTI chairman Imran Khan, who flew back to Islamabad after the rally, expressed grief and sorrow over the deaths in the stampede. He didn’t address the dharna at D-Chowk and instead made a brief statement on the tragedy.

Imran held the district coordination officer (DCO), Zahid Saleem Gondal, responsible for the tragedy. He said the district administration was in control of the exit gates and power supply was disconnected to the venue just before the rally.

He said the DCO didn’t cooperate with the PTI over the rally. He called upon the Punjab chief minister to suspend the DCO for negligence and order an inquiry into the incident.

DCO Gondal, however, rejected the allegations of negligence, saying that it was an accident and the chief minister has already ordered an inquiry. Speaking at a news conference in Multan, he claimed that PTI’s local leadership had said that they would take care of all arrangements.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2014.