Chaos at heaven’s door -DAWN - The Review; May 11, 2006

The unfortunate stampede at the shrine of Baba Fariduddin Shakarganj on the night of March 31, 2001, in which over 100 pilgrims –– all men including a 12-year-old boy –– died of suffocation and injuries, was probably the first and the only incident of its kind in Punjab in recent memory.

Scores of pilgrims from across the country travel to Pakpattan, a small district some 180km south of Lahore, every year in the first week of Muharram to participate in the urs of Baba Farid Shakarganj, a Punjabi sufi poet. The devotees gather at the shrine to pay homage to the saint, and pass through the Bahishti darwaza (the door to paradise) that is opened only once a year for 24 hours. Legend has it that whoever passes through the darwaza will go directly to heaven after death.

The year 2001 was no different. On the fifth night of Muharram, the shrine was crammed with devotees waiting for the opening of the door. The opening was delayed by more than three hours because of a squabble between the officials of the provincial Auqaf department and the caretaker of the shrine who had demanded a 700 per cent increase in his monthly wazifa (stipend). On the one hand stood the Auqaf authorities, reluctant to give in to the demand, on the other was the caretaker, adamant to listen to the devotees requesting the opening of the darwaza.

After a long wait, when the decision was finally taken to open the it, thousands of pilgrims, gathered outside the caretaker’s hujra to inquire about the reason for this delay, followed him into the compound of the shrine. Since they were behind the caretaker, they all went through the shomali (northern) darwaza, which is reserved only for the caretakers, and is not meant to provide access to the public. The northern gate, located several feet below the ground level, is reached through a staircase. One cannot ascertain if the gate is open or not without descending the staircase.

As a frenzied crowd rushed downstairs into a small compound, their access to the shrine was blocked by a high wall on the one side, a dead end on the other and the closed gate on the third; a stampede followed. Conditions became very harsh as the heat started to take its toll on the pilgrims, the low levels of oxygen worsened the problem by causing suffocation.

Once the gate opened, pilgrims virtually walked over one another. More than 20 people died of suffocation on the spot, while others succumbed to injuries. Some 107 people lost their lives in this tragedy which could have easily been avoided had proper arrangements been made by the administration.

“People were shouting from all sides ‘darwaza kholo, darwaza kholo’ (open the gate, open the gate). It went on for some 10 minutes. Then there was a pindrop silence, and I saw blood rushing up people’s necks and faces; their eyes bulging out with pain. They were dying right before my eyes. I was sure that I, too, was going to die. I had no idea when the gate was opened. When I regained consciousness, I found my friends pumping air into me,” a 20-year-old injured man said while narrating the ordeal.

Other eye witnesses informed that nobody would have died had the gate been opened a few minutes earlier. There were around 2,000 people in the small area when the stampede happened.

The incident was the result of sheer mismanagement on the part of the district administration and the caretakers of the shrine. Except for a magistrate, the administration and police officials present at the venue had no experience of handling large crowds, much less of managing a situation that could cause a stampede.

Soon after the tragedy, the district administration and the caretakers of the shrine began blaming each other for the incident. A statement issued by the district magistrate claimed that the stampede happened because the ceremony was delayed for three hours and some people tried to enter the shrine from a northern gate, which was not meant for their access.

However, a shrine spokesman countered this by saying that the two magistrates on duty had not taken proper steps to control the crowd.

Although the Punjab government ordered an inquiry into the incident, and the then governor took a serious note of the catastrophe, nothing substantial emerged from the investigation. Five years down the line, no one even remembers this ghastly incident.

Disaster at the circus

On May 26, 2000, only 14 months before the tragedy at Baba Farid Shakarganj’s shrine, a stampede took place during a circus show in Lahore. Incidentally, this tragedy, in which eight people lost their lives and 30 suffered injuries, also involved pilgrims who were visiting the city from various parts of the province for attending the urs of Data Ganj Bakhsh.

Waiting for an early show to end at 1am, hundreds of devotees of Data Ganj Bakhsh had gathered outside the circus show organised by a circus company at Guddi Ground, Minar-i-Pakistan. Scores of other people joined the crowd after a Muharram procession ended at the Karbala Gamay Shah, near the shrine of Data Ganj Bakhsh.

When the show went on for a few minutes beyond 1am, many of the spectators rushed inside the tents to occupy front row seats. The circus’s security guards tried to stave off the rest of crowd. On failure to do so, they began hitting the spectators with their batons. A few policemen deployed for security also joined the guards. A clash started between the spectators and the security guards and policemen. Amidst the panic, someone started a hoax bomb scare, which created panic among the attendees and a stampede started.

Post-mortem reports of the victims showed the causes of death to be suffocation and chest injuries (caused by baton charge). Despite the tragic incident, the management of the circus went on with the late night show. On the following day, the owners were arrested and the circus was banned. However, by that time, the damage was done.

This incident was a classic example of mismanagement. Despite the knowledge that a number of people were coming to the city to visit the circus, the city administration had not taken any sufficient measures to manage the people or the event. Only a handful of policemen were deployed at the venue, and they, too, were busy in other ‘more profitable activities’ instead of controlling the crowd gathered at the show. Once the public outcry over the incident died down, this matter was also put in the cold storage. –– N.J.