At least 14 pilgrims died of suffocation due to severe weather and drowning in two days of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar Urs in Sindh on Sunday.
According to rescue sources, at least six pilgrims who came in the Urs on Sunday lost their lives to the heat wave, in which five have died of suffocation due to heat stroke and shortage of drinking water, while one pilgrim drowned while taking bath in the BaghLalRiver.
Besides this, eight people died on Saturday, of which five became victims to heat stroke whereas three of them drowned in a river.
Most of the people who died hailed from Punjab; their dead bodies have been sent to their native towns.
Thousands of devotees, mostly from Sindh and Punjab, thronged to the shrine on the first day.
The 763rd Urs was formally inaugurated by Adviser to the Chief Minister Sindh, Dr. Abdul Qayyum Soomro, who laid a floral wreath on the saint’s grave and offered fateha. A persistent heat wave in the region also left more than 2,000 people dead in various states of India last month.
