At least a dozen women were crushed to death in a stampede in Karachi on Friday. Fifteen more are hospitalized. All of them were part of a crowd of more than four hundred women and small children waiting for the distribution of alms and food in a textile factory in the industrial zone known as SITE.
Some survivors explain that the alley was narrow, the heat was oppressive and that the factory that had organized the distribution was letting them in little by little. There were moments of tension due to a succession of fainting spells and because the pushing began to make some of those present fall into the open sewer. The rupture of a pipe finished unleashing the panic and, when the factory opened a gate to relieve the pressure, the stampede was unleashed.
A woman who says she lost two sisters in the tragedy blames organizers for contributing to the panic by literally beating up the crowd to maintain order. The police have arrested the manager and seven other employees, although the owner of the clothing dye factory reportedly fled.
They are accused of not having requested permission or having informed of the humanitarian activity, which was celebrated for the third day and which brought together not only the wives or daughters of the workers but also very humble people from the surrounding area. The police have specified that nine of the deceased were women and three girls. He has also denied that they died by electrocution.
The distribution of alms and food to the poor is part of the spirit of Ramadan. The problem is that more and more Pakistanis are falling below the poverty line. The price of food has officially increased by 45% in one year, reaching its record of the last fifty years. So much so that another nine people have died in the last week in other similar incidents, at flour distribution points.
The poverty of Pakistani workers is exacerbated by the sudden removal of subsidies issued by the International Monetary Fund as a condition for unlocking a new loan. If Pakistan's history is any lesson, it will be vampirized by the ruling class to maintain its lifestyle, until the next credit. The payment of interest on the debt absorbs, by far, the largest item in the general budget of a State that, 75 years after independence, still has to be done to a large extent.
According to a Karachi shopkeeper, in one year the price of a 15-kilo bag of flour has risen from Rs 1,150 to Rs 2,300. Just double. To this we must add that food prices suffer an additional increase during Ramadan, when practicing Muslims fast during the day and eat (a lot) at night.
