Dawn Images

If you’re a woman and you had to leave Karachi Eat because of the ruckus caused by a group of men who gatecrashed the event last Sunday, singer Ali Tariq has offered to hold a public, all-women gig for you. He wants to hold an event for them to enjoy the musical performance they weren’t able to at the annual food festival.

On Monday, Tariq shared a statement in which he apologised for what went down at Karachi Eat and hoped that all the women “made it home safe”. He said that it “hurts to see that women and families in our society can’t even enjoy such simple things in life,” and that he’s “ashamed” of it. The ‘Raabte’ singer hoped for everyone’s safety in a now expired Instagram story and found videos from the event “disturbing to watch”.

Taking to Instagram on Thursday, the singer wrote, “After reading all your messages from you guys, I want to put out a public gig, all girls only! This is to cater all the girls who came out on Sunday but weren’t able to enjoy their day to the fullest.”

Tariq also “pledged” his performance and made a public call for sponsors and donors to cover his band venue and production cost and gave contact details for those who’d like to contact him for the public gig.

The singer’s post received positive comments from RJ Dino Ali who wished Tariq the best with his initiative. Host from the eat festival Ahmed Godil offered his hosting skills for Tariq’s gig and singer Rafay Israr left some heart emojis.

What happened at Karachi Eat

Karachi Eat was held last weekend, from January 6 to Jan 8, but on the final day a ruckus marred the event for many, with claims of gate crashing and harassment circulating on social media. Claims were also made that singer Kaifi Khalil was injured during his performance but later debunked by the singer, who shared a statement assuring fans that he is fine, albeit “disappointed and upset” by the lack of decency shown by those who reportedly harassed women at the event.

“The Eat Festival came to life 10 years ago with the aim of bringing diverse good food, the citizens of Karachi and music all together under one roof,” read a statement by the food festival’s organisers. “Over the years we have taken the brand to Lahore and Islamabad with the same aim in mind. Despite our most stringent efforts, the closing day of our 10th Eat Festival saw unruly crowd behaviour and some very unfortunate and sad incidents occurred.

“This vengeful disregard for rules and regulations gave rise to events that caused much discomfort to innocent people as gate crashers ran amuck. The crowd at the venue on Sunday was less in absolute numbers than on Saturday but because there were no unruly gate crashers, the first two days ended on a civilised note. Regardless, we are collecting the data and conducting a deeper investigation into the matter of surveillance, breach of boundary walls and the need to up the restrictions of what is brought into the arena. Our thoughts and sincere apologies for all who were affected by the unruly crowd and the innocent people who were caught in the crossfire.”

Khalil, who stopped his performance at the event midway and left the stage, took to Instagram and Twitter with an official statement of his own in which he denied reports that he was injured but slammed the gate crashers.

He said he’s “disappointed and upset” because of the incident where women who came to “enjoy the evening with family and friends were harassed and treated inappropriately by a group of individuals that lacked decency and common sense”.