Wed 21 October 2020:
At least 15 Afghans have been killed and more than a dozen injured in a stampede near the Pakistani consulate in eastern Afghanistan.
The stampede occurred in a stadium in Jalalabad city where thousands of Afghans had gathered to secure visas from the consulate, officials said on Wednesday.
Video shows thousands of Visa applicant gathered: Deadly #Afghanistan stampede: 15 #Afghans die in #stampede near #Pakistan consulate in #Jalalabad, pic.twitter.com/Q1CJuy4eV2
— Sandeep Seth (@sandipseth) October 21, 2020
Sohrab Qaderi, a provincial council member , where the incident occurred said of the 15 people dead, 11 were women and several senior citizens were wounded.
Two other provincial officials said more than 3,000 Afghans had congregated to collect tokens needed to apply for a visa to travel to Pakistan.
“Unfortunately, this morning, tens of thousands of people had come to the football stadium which led to the tragic incident,” provincial governor’s spokesman Attaullah Khogyani said.
To avoid large crowds from gathering at the visa centre, the applicants had been directed to a nearby football stadium in Jalalabad, Khogyani said.
The Pakistan consulate had resumed issuing visas last week after a seven month pause because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Thousands of Afghans from Nangarhar and other nearby provinces had arrived since the early morning to apply for medical visas or to visit relatives.
Officials in the Pakistan embassy were not immediately available for comment.
