15 people killed on Indus Highway in last month: Jamshoro police

SHC ordered on Aug 25 RTA, police to set up check-posts on two locations along highway

HYDERABAD: As the Sindh High Court's (SHC) order to deny entry to heavy transport vehicles (HTV) on the Indus Highway's stretch from Jamshoro to Sehwan awaits implementation, 15 people have died in accidents in just one month. Another 97 people were injured between October 1 and November 2 in various accidents on the same road.

The Jamshoro police, which shared these mortality figures, informed the SHC on Tuesday that its August 25 order has been partially acted upon. The police officer, Nawaz Ali, who submitted the report on behalf of Jamshoro SSP Irfan Bahadur, blamed the regional transport authority (RTA) for the weak enforcement.

"... although [police] have established a joint check-post in collaboration with the RTA secretary, they [RTA] have failed to perform for the last many days," Ali stated before the bench of Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Justice Khadim Hussain M Shaikh.

He disclosed that although policemen are manning the post, the RTA's staff has not been turning up for duty. He said the police could not stop HTVs because they are not authorised to check the route permits of these vehicles.



On August 25, the SHC ordered the RTA and police to set up check-posts on two locations along the highway - one in Jamshoro and another in Benazirabad. They were directed to stop HTVs which lack route permits from using this 132-kilometre section of the Indus Highway between Jamshoro and Sehwan. An unusually high number of accidents occur on that portion of the highway, which has only two lanes for vehicles moving in opposite directions besides several sharp curvy turns.

The SHC ordered the RTA secretary to appear in person on November 3 for an explanation. The Benazirabad SSP was also asked to depute a police officer to attend the hearing on his behalf.