Lahore: Funeral prayers for mosque collapse victims held

Dunya News

Funeral prayers for fourteen victims of mosque collapse held in Daroghawala area of Lahore.

LAHORE (Dunya News) – Funeral prayers for fourteen people, who had been killed in Tuesday’s mosque collapse in Daroghawala, were offered on Wednesday, Dunya News reported.

The prayers were led by Maulana Ramzan Sayaloi, the prayer leader of Jama Masjid Data Durbar.

The funeral prayers for the mosque collapse victims were offered at Daroghawala chowk in Lahore. The funeral prayers led by prayer leader Ramazan Sayaloi were attended by family members, neighbors and friends of those killed in the mosque collapse. In addition, the residents from the nearby localities of Lahore also attended the prayers. However, apart from the DSO Lahore and Captain (Retd) Usman, no representatives of any political party or federal government were present at the funeral prayers. The victims of the mosque collapse were laid to rest after the funeral prayers.

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Mosque Collapse in Lahore
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According to AFP, the death toll from the mosque collapse has risen to 24.

The worshippers were killed when the roof of the mosque collapsed in Lahore on Tuesday as around three dozen people gathered for afternoon prayers.

The incident took place in Daroghawala, a low-income neighbourhood of the city with narrow and congested streets.

"The death toll from the incident is now 24. The ages of the worshippers who died are between 15 to 35 years," Mohammed Rashid, an official at the rescue control room, told AFP.

"We have also taken out seven seriously injured people from the rubble," he said.

District administration chief Mohammed Usman told media the dead and injured were recovered during 13 hours of searching.

He said the rescue operation would continue until all the rubble was removed.

"According to locals  claims it seems almost all people have been recovered but we will continue our efforts till the removal of the whole debris or any doubts (about people still trapped under the rubble)," Usman said.

Pakistan has a poor safety record in the construction and maintenance of buildings.

Many of the more than 200 killed in floods across Pakistan this month have been victims of collapsed roofs.

At least 21 people including including 16 women and four children died when a factory collapsed in Lahore in 2012.

The collapse of the Margalla Towers apartment block in Islamabad in a 2005 earthquake killed 78 people, with shoddy construction blamed.