Stampede at #Bangladesh clothes handout kills 23

A few 1,500 people, many desperately poor, had turned up to receive free clothes in the town of Mymensingh, north of the capital Dhaka.

Police officer Main Ul Haque said: “We have found 20 bodies, and the number will increase as numerous bodies were taken by their family members”.

Ambia Begum, 45, went with seven female relatives at dawn.

But one zakat clothes seeker, Zamila Khatun, alleged that workers of Shamim’s factory, where he pays poor wages, had swooped down on them with batons and triggered the stampede.

“Oh Allah, why did I come here?”

Numerous victims were ferried by cycle rickshaws to a nearby hospital with television footage showing relatives rushing through the entrance and corridors, cradling the lifeless bodies of their loved ones in their arms.

The IGP made the call following the death of 25 people in a stampede in Mymensingh, said AIG (Media) of the Police Headquarters Nazrul Islam.

Revising the previous deadtoll, District Chief Administrator Mustakim Billah Faruqui told dpa that the deadtoll had increased by one.

Three investigation committees have been formed to probe into the incident.

A doctor at the hospital where the dead and injured were taken said all the victims were women and children.

Often, as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan comes to an end, the faithful perform ‘Zakat, ‘ or an act of charity.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina offered her condolences over a state-run news agency Friday, saying she “conveyed profound sympathy to the bereaved families”.

But the handouts have sparked several deadly stampedes over the years. Many others were also injured in the stampede that occurred when 100s of people pushed themselves into the house of a business man while he was donating charity hand outs in the holy month of Ramzan.

A stampede during clothes giveaway has killed at least 22 people in Mymensingh city in northern Bangladesh.