13 killed in Sindh highway tragedy

SUKKUR: Thirteen people were killed after a passenger coach rammed against a truck on the Indus Highway near Manjhand at Torhi Phatak on Thursday.

According to the police, 15 passengers were also injured in the accident, which left the coach in flames. The head-on collision destroyed the right part of the coach, showing aggravated damage. The residents and police, who rushed to the rescue, pulled out the bodies and injured from the coach.

According to Jamshoro’s Senior Superintendent of Police, Javed Baloch, the coach was travelling to Karachi from Bahawalpur, while the truck was heading towards Sehwan from Jamshoro. The dead and injured were shifted to the Government Hospital, Manjhand, while five of critically injured passengers were shifted to the Liaquat University Hospital, local doctors said.

The health authorities declared an emergency at the hospital. Some of the injured were also shifted from the hospital to their home cities. The bodies were shifted to Bahawalpur and other cities in Punjab. The deceased were identified as two-year-old Khadija, Samar Abbas, Mukhtiar, Muhammad Ashraf, Atiqur Rehman, Ajmal, Javed, Hasnain, Zulqarnain, Pahwan, Mst Shahnawaz and Mst Noreen.

Some of the injured passengers told the police that the coach driver was wrongly overtaking other vehicles and on many occasions they asked him not to do so. But the driver neglected their requests. Police took the van’s cleaner into custody while the driver escaped.