DHAKA, 7 April 2005 — Six people, including a child and four women, were killed and 50 others injured in stampede at Orakandi village of Gopalganj district yesterday morning, sources said.
Two of the deceased were identified as Putul, 42, and Jyotsna, 50, of Beelbabla village in Dumuria sub-district of Khulna district.
The identify of the four other victims — two women, an eight-year-old child and a 65-year-old man — could not be immediately known.
The stampede occurred as 100,000 people gathered in Orakandi to attend the inaugural function of a weeklong “Baruni Fair”, police officer Bijoy Kumar Moitree said.
The violence occurred as thousands of people rushed to pray at a temple after taking a bath in a nearby pond, Moitree said.
“We were trying to maintain discipline, but it was almost impossible for us to control such a huge crowd,” Moitree added.
“The dead included four women and a child,” he said.
Many of the injured, two of them in serious condition, were taken to hospitals in the area, 100 km southwest of Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital.
The organizers planned to go ahead with the weeklong festival as more than 50,000 people remained and many others were making their way to site, officials said.
Meanwhile, a Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday that Dhaka will ask China to boost investment in the South Asian country and give duty-free access to more of its products during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit this week.
“Bilateral discussions will cover economic, trade and investment,” Foreign Secretary Hemayetuddin told a news conference here. “We will also seek cooperation in new areas like air and road links.”
Wen is expected to arrive today on a two-day visit that will include talks with Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on cooperation in areas like agriculture, flood management, crime control, tourism, education and sports.
