Two dead after thousands rush a Daska stadium for promised cash, a car and 50 motorcycles; the Sialkot TikTok star built on live-stream gifts is booked, denies being there, and says he will surrender.
SIALKOT/LAHORE: A wedding celebration that Pakistani TikTok star Mr Patlo promoted with promises of Rs20 million in cash, a car and 50 motorcycles ended in a stampede that killed two young men, leaving one of the country’s best-known live-streamers facing a police case and in hiding.
Police have registered a case against the TikToker, whose real name is Ansar Mahmood, along with eight named associates and 45 unidentified people, after crowds surged into Faraz Sports Stadium on Daska Road on the night of Oct. 31 for his mehndi ceremony. Six people have been arrested. Mr Patlo has not been detained and, in a tearful video, said he was not at the venue and would surrender once he recovers from an injury.
The Sialkot district administration had granted permission for the wedding functions from Oct. 31 to Nov. 7, with the mehndi due to begin after Isha prayers, Deputy Commissioner Awais Mushtaq said. Around 4pm on Oct. 31, the administration said, it received reports that the organisers were breaching the approved conditions, and the deputy commissioner revoked the permission, according to a district spokesperson quoted by Daily Pakistan.
By then, the crowd was already building. For days, posts on Mr Patlo’s social media pages had advertised giveaways for those who came, including Rs20 million (2 crore rupees) in cash, a car, 50 motorcycles and mobile phones, police said. Other accounts of the promotion mentioned Umrah tickets and individual prizes of Rs50,000.
Thousands of people arrived from Sialkot, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Wazirabad, Mandi Bahauddin, Narowal and as far as Lahore and Jhelum. Minute Mirror estimated the crowd at 30,000 to 50,000; police have not given an official figure.
The surge came at the stadium gates. According to the police complaint, Mr Patlo announced from the stage that everyone should enter the ground immediately, and the crowd rushed the entrance at once. His team has blamed gates being opened early, inadequate security and the sheer size of the crowd.
Aqeel died at the scene. Rehan, who was critically injured, was moved to Lahore and died on Sunday. Rescue 1122 took the injured to hospital; police and media figures range from 14 to 18 injured.
Social media posts and some foreign outlets have claimed far higher tolls, of seven or eight dead and more than 100 injured. Police and rescue officials have confirmed two deaths, and no official source has supported the higher figures.
The families of the dead say they are still waiting for justice and are angry that the main suspect remains at large, Samaa TV reported.
The first information report charges the suspects with causing death through negligence, violating official orders, vandalism, incitement and unlawful assembly. Police raids have recovered 50 motorcycles and a high-value car that were reportedly arranged for the lucky draw, a police spokesperson said.
The District Police Officer visited the stadium on the night to restore order, and investigators are expected to examine crowd management, security planning and why the event went ahead after permission was withdrawn. Who originally approved a gathering of this size, and with what conditions, has not been made public.
“I was not even there”
In a video posted after the stampede from what he said was a village where he was hiding alone, Mr Patlo denied any wrongdoing. “I swear to God, I did not do anything. I was not there. I was not even there,” he said.
He said he had injured his back playing cricket the day before and was at Bashir Hospital for an MRI scan when the crush happened, and that he had already posted a video calling off the remaining functions and telling people to go home. He said the event had a proper no-objection certificate, that the national anthem was played and four Pakistani flags were displayed, and that after he left the crowd damaged his home and farmhouse. The FIR, he said, wrongly placed him at the stadium and also named his brothers.
He said the cash and gifts were meant for poor families, apologised to the families of the dead and injured, and appealed to Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir to order a full inquiry and treat the incident as an accident. He said friends and associates had abandoned him and that he did not know where his parents were.
At points the video turned to his own state of mind; he said he had thought of ending his life and that the video might be his last. Legal experts quoted by Minute Mirror said an emotional video carried no legal weight and the case would turn on evidence.
A wedding meant to be a spectacle
The mehndi was part of a week of celebrations. Mr Patlo’s nikah was held with close family a day or two earlier, and the larger functions were planned into the first week of November, 24 News reported. Alongside the fan giveaways, he had announced he would pay for the weddings of 20 poor and orphaned girls, a charitable gesture that became part of the event’s promotion.
Showering money at weddings is a long tradition in Punjab, and there is no provincial ban on it, despite widely shared claims to the contrary. What set this wedding apart was scale: the gifts were advertised online to an audience of millions, turning a family function into a public draw.
From vegetable seller to live-stream star
Mr Patlo is from the Sialkot area. According to profiles circulated online, he left school after matriculation, sold vegetables, and worked as a labourer in the United Arab Emirates before turning to live-streaming. He reportedly began on Bigo Live in 2018 under the name “Motu Patlo” and moved to TikTok Live, where his jokes, banter and live games during the Covid-19 lockdowns and after built a large following.
The money comes from TikTok’s gifting system. Viewers buy virtual coins and send animated gifts to creators during live streams and “battles” between hosts; creators convert the gifts into cash after the platform takes its share. Estimates of Mr Patlo’s earnings, including claims of crores of rupees a month, are not verified, and he has not published his income.
His fame has reached beyond Pakistan. Minute Mirror reported that fans at Sharjah Cricket Stadium once crowded around him for selfies, overshadowing former captain Wasim Akram. He has also been part of a circle of social media personalities including YouTuber Rajab Butt, who claimed this year to have become a billionaire and is facing his own court case in Lahore.
Earlier controversies
In April 2025, Pakistani media reported that Mr Patlo had been detained at Dubai airport while travelling to Qatar, citing suspicion of money laundering; Rajab Butt confirmed the detention in a video. Another online account linked it to AI-generated clips about a Dubai-based creator. Neither the reason nor the outcome was officially explained, and he later resumed public life.
Videos on social media have also used the term “carding”, the use of stolen card data to buy goods or digital coins, in connection with TikTok gifting in Pakistan, sometimes naming him. No authority has made such an allegation against Mr Patlo, and he has not been charged with any financial offence.
This week, a woman who says she is his first wife gave interviews claiming they married on Nov. 10, 2021, that he divorced her without telling her after about four years, and that he threatened her when she asked him to acknowledge the marriage publicly, Express News reported. Her claims could not be verified, and Mr Patlo has not responded to them.
Politics and the influencer economy
Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, who represents Sialkot in the National Assembly, said no condemnation was enough. He accused Mr Patlo of staging a drama to boost earnings and views, said the TikToker was using his influence to evade arrest, and asked whether creators earning such sums were being taxed and whether the Federal Board of Revenue was watching. An unnamed senior Sialkot politician told Minute Mirror that TikTokers had become a threat to established politicians.
The case has sharpened a wider debate about Pakistan’s largely unregulated creator economy. The Lahore High Court has banned filming and TikTok videos on its premises, and the Islamabad High Court is hearing a plea to bar under-16s from social media. Public feuds between influencers have spilled into police stations, including a brawl inside a Lahore ASP’s office in August.
Police say raids are continuing. Mr Patlo’s arrest, or surrender, would bring him before a court that will weigh the police complaint, which says he urged the crowd forward, against his claim that he was in hospital.
Investigators will also need to explain how an event that was permitted, then cancelled hours before it began, still drew tens of thousands of people into a stadium without the police and crowd-control arrangements such a gathering needed. For the families of Aqeel and Rehan, those answers matter more than the rest of the wedding, which has been postponed indefinitely.
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