Fourteen women were killed Monday in a stampede during a flour giveaway in the Pakistani city of Karachi, police said.
Another 19 people were injured, regional police chief Abdullah Shaikh said. The stampede happened when hundreds of people tried to race into a compound to get flour as part of the giveaway before doors closed. A man named Chaudhry Iftikhar had organized the giveaway at his compound to help the poor. Police said Iftikhar has been arrested because he did not notify proper authorities before holding the giveaway. The U.N. World Food Program estimates that 24 percent of Pakistan’s population is undernourished and that 38 percent of children under age 5 are underweight. It calls the state of hunger in Pakistan “alarming.” Fighting in tribal regions has displaced millions. The World Food Program said that in July it fed more than 2 million who were displaced by recent fighting.
