RAWALPINDI: At least 35 people were killed in two separate bus accidents in Pakistan on Sunday, including 12 pilgrims who had been trying to reach Iran, rescue and hospital officials said.
Twenty-three people were killed when the bus they were travelling in plunged into a ravine near the town of Azad Pattan on the border between Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Sameena Khan, the head of Tehsil Headquarter Hospital in the town of Kahuta, said that twenty-three bodies had been recovered from the crash site. "I have lost three members of my family," Tara Zafar said, who travelled to the hospital after hearing about the accident. Her father, sister and one-year-old nephew were among the dead. "I hoped that at least one of them had survived. It's doomsday for my family."
Umar Farooq, a senior government official from Sudhanoti district, where the bus started its journey, confirmed the death toll from the crash site. In a separate incident, 12 men died when their bus crashed into a ravine on the Makran Coastal Highway in Balochistan, after being prevented from crossing into Iran.
"An army crane is on its way to help lift the bus from the ravine to check if passengers are pinned underneath the vehicle. Therefore the death toll may rise," police official Aslam Bangulzai said. "This is a particularly treacherous tract of road, with many twists and turns. The driver was speeding and the bus fell into a deep ravine," he added.
The accident occurred in a mountainous area, around 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the nearest town of Uthal and 500 kilometres from the Iran border town of Pishin.
"The bus was carrying pilgrims on its way to Arbaeen (pilgrimage) but was turned back at the Iran border because their documents had some problems," said Hamood Ur Rehman, a senior government official in the nearby district of Gwadar. Road accidents with high fatalities are common in Pakistan, where safety measures are lax, driver training is poor and transport infrastructure often decrepit. On Saturday, the bodies of 28 pilgrims who died in a bus crash in Iran were returned to Pakistan.
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