Tragic deaths at a qulkhwani

We are shocked at the death of 10 people in a stampede during the qulkhwani of former Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury on December 18.  According to our report, 40 other people were also injured in the incident. The tragedy occurred as several hundred people scrambled for food at the entrance to Rima Convention Centre in the port city's Askar Dighir Par area. It has been alleged that while the convention centre has the capacity to feed 4,000 people, the organisers were planning to feed around 10,000 people. If that is so, why were no precautionary measures taken to control the crowds?

Deaths in stampedes are nothing new in our country. In July 2015, 27 people died in a similar stampede during zakaat distribution at a businessman's house in Mymensingh. Repetition of such incidents only brings to the fore the lapses in the system in managing big crowds.

In this specific case, what we know as of now is that the crowd was huge, the entrance to the convention centre was narrow, and there was also a slope at the entry. Enough reasons for such a tragedy to occur. However, as a case has already been filed and a probe committee formed by the district administration to investigate the incident, we hope to know the exact reasons behind this incident once the committee as well as the police submit their reports. As for now, the authorities must initiate a crowd control mechanism in place while arranging such big scale events involving thousands of people. 

Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to the families who lost their near ones and we wish early recovery of those injured in the incident. This terrible incident should be a lesson for all of us to make sure such tragedies are prevented in the future.