At least 27 pilgrims died and 100 were injured in a stampede at a 13th century Islamic shrine in central Pakistan, officials said Sunday.
"The death toll has gone from 20 to 27," Multan city's police chief Shaukat Javed told AFP, referring to the seven people that had died from their injuries in hospital.
President Mohammad Rafiq Tarar and military ruler General Pervez Musharraf in separate condolence messages expressed "deep grief and sorrow over the tragic loss of lives."
Twenty people, all men, were crushed to death at the scene at around midnight on Saturday (2000 GMT).
Police said the victims were among thousands of men crammed into a narrow street leading to the main door of the shrine of Baba Farib Shakar Gunj in Paktattan, 180 kilometers (112 miles) south of Lahore.
Javed said the stampede, one of the worst in the country, occurred when caretakers delayed the opening of the shrine's Behashti Darwaza (Paradise Door) by more than three hours.
Around 100,000 people were waiting in long queues outside the gate when hundreds of others made a dash through a narrow lane meant for shrine officials, he said.
At least 20 people were overrun by the mob and crushed to death, officials said, adding that around 100 were hospitalized overnight.
"We had only 27 bodies," doctor Samina Murad of the Civil Hospital Pakpattan said, adding that almost all the injured had been discharged after treatment.
"Most of the deaths occurred due to suffocation," another doctor Abdul Ghaffar said and that "only five people remain in hospital."
An official statement said "people became restless" amid the delay and some of them opted to seek entry through the northern side of the shrine, which was out-of-bounds.
"Soon after the commencement of the ceremony, people at the northern gate scrambled to pass through the gate. Consequently many people got trampled," it said.
A judicial inquiry had been ordered to clarify the cause of incident, the statement added.
It said the inquiry would "fix the responsibilities on the public functionaries as well as members of the public responsible for the tragic episode."
A shrine spokesman blamed the local administration for negligence.
Abdul Zahir was quoted as telling local daily The News that the tragedy could have been averted had the administration taken proper measures to control the crowd.
The town's police chief, Anwar Virk, denied any security lapse and blamed the incident on the caretaker, Deevan Azmat.
Virk said Azmat had been busy in "negotiating an increase in the annual stipend" given by the religious ministry for the maintenance of the shrine and free distribution of food for the devotees.
"This delayed his arrival and made the crowd restive," he added.
Officials said the victims included people from different parts of the country and local authorities were making arrangements to transport the bodies to their home towns.
Many devotees believe that entry to heaven is ensured if they pass through the shrine's door.
Every year around 500,000 people attend religious rituals marking the anniversary of the death of the Muslim saint Baba Farid Ganj Shakar, who died in 1265.
The saint is widely respected among both Sunni and Shiite Muslim sects -- ISLAMABAD (AFP)
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