Jalalabad | At least eleven women were killed Tuesday in Afghanistan during a stampede near the Pakistan consulate in Jalalabad (east), where thousands of people seeking visas were gathered, we learned from officials.
Ten people, two men and eight women, were also injured, said Zaher Adel, spokesperson for the Nangarhar Provincial Hospital, of which Jalalabad is the capital.
“Unfortunately, this morning tens of thousands of people came to a football stadium” near the consulate, from which they were trying to get out, “which caused this tragic accident,” the spokesperson for the province of Nangarhar, Attaullah Khogyani, which for its part reported thirteen wounded.
Pakistani authorities had stopped issuing visas for seven months due to the novel coronavirus, which had created this crush, residents from across the province rushing to Jalalabad to obtain visas, he added. .
The local authorities had asked them to wait in the football stadium.
Jalalabad is the capital of eastern Afghanistan, located a hundred kilometers from the border with Pakistan.
As Kabul accuses Islamabad of supporting the Taliban who are destabilizing their regime, which Pakistan denies, more than two million Afghans are living as refugees in Pakistan and the travels of Afghans across the border are very frequent.
Mixed gatherings are prohibited in Afghan culture, so women and men were gathered in different parts of the Jalalabad football stadium. Most of the victims were elderly, according to Attaullah Khogyani.