At least 15 people have been killed in a stampede of Afghans waiting to get visas near a Pakistani consulate in the eastern city of Jalalabad, officials say.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
An estimated 3000 Afghans had congregated on a sports ground outside the consulate, waiting to collect tokens needed to apply for a visa, two provincial officials told Reuters.
An Afghan news channel transmitted images of them holding passports aloft to secure a token. Images taken after the stampede showed scores of passports strewn across the ground.
"The visa applicants jostled to secure their token from the consulate officials ... the crowd got out of control, leading to a stampede," said an Afghan official.
A survivor described to Reuters how tempers frayed and the crowd became unruly in the lead-up to the stampede.
"I stood in the queue all night but at some point people got angry and started pushing, many of us fell on the ground," said Farmanullah, who goes by a single name.
Eleven of the 15 victims were women, and several senior citizens were among more than a dozen injured, Sohrab Qaderi, a provincial council member, said.
Tens of thousands of Afghans every year travel to neighbouring Pakistan to secure medical treatment, education and jobs. The two countries share a nearly 2600km border.
Pakistan hosts about 3 million Afghan refugees and economic migrants, who have fled violence, religious persecution and poverty in their war-torn country.
The Pakistan embassy in Kabul issued a statement expressing "deep grief and sadness", and officials said Afghan authorities had been responsible for marshalling the crowd on the sports ground.
Australian Associated Press
