Karachi: At least 11 people, all of whom were women and children, were killed in a stampede at a Ramadan food distribution facility in Karachi, a city in southern Pakistan.
In the incident on Friday, which occurred when hundreds of people pushed one another in a panic to gather food outside of a factory, several other people were hurt. According to police official Mughees Hashmi, some of them tumbled into a nearby drain.
Residents reported that during the stampede, a wall close to the drain also fell, injuring and killing people, Al Jazeera reported.
Three children and eight women were reported dead by the local media.
Hashmi claimed that the factory proprietor who set up the food distribution centre had not informed the police of the plot. Local police, he claimed, might have sent out reinforcements but they were not informed of the distribution.
Authorities have been tasked with looking into what caused the event, according to Sindh's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is from Karachi.
Since the beginning of the Muslim sacred month of fasting last week, the stampede that occurred at the locations where food is distributed for Ramadan has been the deadliest.
Since last week, at least 21 people have died in stampedes at nationwide distribution points for free food. With this newest incident, that number is now at least 21.
Local resident Mohammad Arsalan claimed to live close to the factory where people had congregated since the morning to claim the free food. He claimed that while he was unsure of the precise reason for the incident, "we heard cries and later learned about this stampede,"
The incident on Friday occurs a day after officials mandated the deployment of extra police at the Ramadan food distribution centres in order to prevent dangerous crowding.
The worst economic crisis in Pakistan's history is currently plaguing the cash-strapped nation. As the cost of living crisis gets worse, millions of people are struggling to place food on the table.
Since the government announced its plan last week to provide low-income families with free flour during Ramadan in an effort to lessen the effects of record-breaking inflation and skyrocketing poverty, large crowds have been assembling at distribution sites.
The government has been desperately trying to work out a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to restart a $6.5 billion loan plan that has been basically suspended since November in order to keep the economy afloat.
For the release of an instalment worth $1.1 billion, the IMF has made several demands. It involves increasing taxes, eliminating subsidies, and liberalising the exchange rate of the rupee.
Shahbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, met with women who had come to receive flour on Friday at a centre for distributing wheat in Islamabad. Sharif urged the authorities to see to it that everyone was treated with respect and that there were no more incidents.