Date | March-June 2023 |
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Location | Multiple cities in Pakistan, including Charsadda, Karachi, Mirpurkhas, and Shaheed Benazirabad |
Type | Crowd crush |
Cause | Subsidized flour sales by the government leading to large crowds and lack of proper crowd control measures |
Deaths | 15 |
Non-fatal injuries | 45 |
Crowd crushes for free goods in different cities in Pakistan in March, April, and June 2023 left 15 people dead and 45 others injured. In Karachi, 12 people, including three children, were killed and five others wounded during the distribution of zakat among the families of employees working at a private company. Meanwhile, in Charsadda, a city in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, one person died and eight others were injured in a crush for free flour during the first day of Ramadan. One died in Mirpurkhas.[1] A crowd crush in Sakrand town, Shaheed Benazirabad, resulted in three females, including a minor, being injured.[2] One old man died and eight people were hurt in Vehari and Muzaffargarh while receiving free flour.[3] Finally, on June 26, a stampede in Karachi injured twenty-one women during the disbursement of funds for the Benazir Income Support Programme.[4]