On Thursday, the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, a stampede for free flour left one person dead and eight others injured in Charsadda.
As the country struggles with a balance of payments problem that has driven it back into talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the cost of staple foods has skyrocketed in recent months. Inflation is at a nearly 50-year high.
In the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where the event occurred, nine people were trampled and rushed to a hospital where one person passed away, local police commander Muhammad Arif said.
One of the several distribution sites the authorities put up during Ramadan hundreds of people showed up to the neighborhood market for the freebies. The program has enrolled millions of low-income families across the country.
In a neighborhood, when masses gathered for free flour, a wall on which they were seated fell, killing one man and injuring four others.
AFP has quoted authorities that the cause of the wall’s fall remained unclear.
Years of financial mismanagement and political unrest have destroyed Pakistan’s finances, which have been further compounded by the world energy crisis and severe floods that submerged a third of the nation last year.
