Two killed in stampede at TikToker's Sialkot wedding event

Two people died and several were injured in a stampede at Faraz Sports Stadium in Daska, Sialkot district, on the evening of October 31, at a wedding celebration hosted by the TikToker Ansar Jutt, known as Patlo, where a crowd put at between 30,000 and 50,000 people arrived.

Jutt had announced months earlier that he would arrange the marriages of 20 poor girls at the event and give away a car, 50 motorcycles, Umrah tickets and cash prizes to those who attended. When the stadium gates opened, the crowd pushed towards the front and the crush began, Minute Mirror reported.

The host said he called the event off after he was injured in a fall from stairs and taken to hospital. By then, thousands of people from other cities had already reached the venue.

An FIR has been registered against Jutt. Federal Defence Minister Khawaja Asif wrote on X that the TikToker had gathered the public with prizes, that "this whole drama was done for more earnings", and that "the TikToker is absconding and making the law ineffective by using his influence". Asif said unregulated social media could prove poison for society and the state, and asked whether tax laws covered people earning from it.

In a video he said was recorded at an undisclosed location, Jutt denied being at the stadium at the time. He said he was in hospital after the fall, that CCTV footage would confirm it, and that the FIR wrongly placed him inside the ground. He said his only fault was wanting to give away gifts to the poor, and appealed to Field Marshal Asim Munir and Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif.

Minute Mirror reported that people climbed a large electricity transformer to get into the stadium, and asked who had issued the NOC for a private wedding in a public stadium, what capacity it permitted, and where the crowd control plans of the police, Rescue 1122 and the district administration were. It also asked why the Punjab government's ban on throwing cash at weddings was ignored.

Ghulam Qadir, a retired school teacher, told the outlet, "Where is the young generation heading and what kind of people are they following and idealizing?" A senior political leader from Sialkot, who was not named, said such TikTokers were a threat to politicians because a figure with that following could spoil opponents' chances in an election.