At least 25 dead after bus plunges into ditch in Kohistan

At least 25 people were killed on Tuesday when a passenger bus fell into a ditch after it collided with an abandoned vehicle near the Harban area of ​​Upper Kohistan on the Karakoram Highway in Khyber-Pakhtunkwa. According to Express News, the accident took place when the bus travelling from Gilgit to Rawalpindi hit the small car after which both the vehicles plunged into the ditch. Following the accident, residents of the area along with rescue officials pulled out the bodies and injured from the bus and shifted them to the hospital. Several injured passengers were said to be in critical condition. Eyewitnesses said the accident took place because the overspeeding bus hit the small vehicle as the driver lost control. President Dr Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif have expressed grief over the loss of lives in the bus accident and offered condolences to the bereaved families. Also read: 17 killed in accident near Kohat tunnel The prime minister directed officials to provide all available medical facilities to the injured. Gilgit Baltistan Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid also expressed sorrow over the bus accident and directed the administration and all relevant departments to evacuate the injured and provide them all possible medical facilities. The chief minister has also issued directives to set up a special control room for better coordination and monitoring of emergency response. Moreover, the chief minister has directed to send a medical team from Gilgit if the need arises. The accident comes a week after 41 people were killed as a bus fell into a ravine and caught fire in the Lasbela district of southern Balochistan province. The bus, carrying around 48 people, was on its way from Quetta to Karachi when it hit a pillar on a bridge and careened off course. 17 people were killed in a head-on collision between a van and a truck on the Indus Highway near the Kohat Tunnel toll plaza on February 3. The passenger coach was on its way to Peshawar from Lakki Marwat when it was hit by the truck coming from the opposite direction. At least nine people died in another road accident on the Indus Highway in December when a passenger coach collided head-on with a stone-carrying tractor-trolley and another passenger coach near Rajanpur.  Fatal road accidents are common in Pakistan, where traffic rules are rarely followed and roads in many rural areas are in poor condition. At least 22 people, including nine members of one family, were killed in June last year when a passenger van fell into deep ravine in Balochistan.

from Pakistan News, Latest News Pakistan, Pakistan Headline | The Express Tribune https://ift.tt/1I7yzEJ