Stampede death toll rises to 29

A stampede after an Islamic religious seminar killed at least 29 women and children and injured more than 70 others in Karachi today.

The stampede occurred as thousands of women left the Sunni Muslim Faizan-e-Medina centre in downtown Karachi to attend a rally after listening to clerics deliver sermons on the life of Islam’s 7th Century prophet, Muhammad, said Hanees Billu, a spokesman for the centre.

Witnesses said the fatal crush happened inside the compound of the centre after a woman bent down to pick up a young girl who had fallen, causing other people behind to trip over her.

“I heard a girl crying for help and a woman stopped to pick her up,” said a 40-year-old woman, who only identified herself as Zaibunisa, from her hospital bed where she was being treated for a broken arm.

“When the woman stopped there was a wave of people who stepped over us. Someone pulled me to the side and after I gained consciousness, I was in the hospital,” she said.

The bodies of 18 women and four children were taken to the Liaqat National Hospital, said Ali Azmat Abdi, director of the private-run facility. Another seven bodies were taken to the state-run Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre, said Siam Jamali, a doctor at the state-run centre.

Doctors said most of the deaths were caused by internal injuries and suffocation, while more than 40 of those injured were in “very serious conditions”, said Abdi of the Liaqat hospital.

Billu, of the Dawat-e-Islami missionary group that runs the centre, said at least 10,000 women had been listening to sermons to mark celebrations for the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, which take place on Tuesday.

After the seminar, the women left a building and walked toward the centre’s main gate when the stampede took place, Billu said.

Islamic religious events are often marred by stampedes, particularly during the hajj pilgrimage to the cities of Medina and Mecca in Saudi Arabia. More than 360 people died in Mina, outside Mecca, in January, while a 1990 hajj stampede killed 1,426 pilgrims.

Pakistan’s last fatal stampede happened in March 2003 as Shiite Muslims fled a mosque in eastern Pakistan to escape a fire, killing seven.