At least 17 people, including 12 children and two women, died and at least 10 others sustained injuries in a horrendous fire on a passenger bus on the M9 Motorway near Jamshoro late on Wednesday, Sindh’s Parliamentary Secretary on Health Qasim Siraj Soomro said.
Police and rescuers said that some 50 passengers – all flood victims belonging to the Mugheri tribe – were travelling in the ill-fated bus, on the way back to their hometown of Khairpur Nathan Shah in Dadu district.
Initially, the Nooriabad police station head Hashim Brohi and the Motorway Police Jamshoro Sector Commander Farhan Ahmed gave a death toll of 10 people. However, Soomro later said that the number of fatalities rose to 17.
“[Among the dead] 12 are minors, under the age of 15 years,” Soomro told The Express Tribune, adding that 10 injured persons were treated by the rescue 1122 teams. “Our seven ambulances are there to facilitate the patients, if required on medical grounds.”
The Jamshoro district health officer said that the all the victims were internally displace persons (IDPs), because of the floods in Dadu district. The DHO said that they moved out when Khairpur Nathan Shah came under floodwater and had stayed somewhere near the Super Highway – the M9 Motorway.
Commander Ahmed said that the fire started from the air-conditioning system in the rear of the bus and engulfed the entire vehicle. He added that emergency exit of the bus was not working, otherwise, the casualties would have been fewer.
Soomro said that the injured were being given treatment in Jamshoro, adding that they could be shifted to other facilities if required. The health department has arranged 30 beds at the Burns Ward in Karachi, he added. “Emergency services are available at civil hospital Hyderabad and Jamshoro.”
Sindh Information Minister, Sharjeel Memon, who also holds the portfolio of the transport ministry, said that the Jamshoro district administration and the police reached the spot and a relief operation was under way. He added that emergency had been imposed in hospitals to provide medical facilities to the injured.
Memon expressed grief over the loss of precious lives in the fire incident. He ordered the transport secretary to form a high-level committee to investigate the matter, adding that the responsible persons should be determined within three days.
The minister said that it should be determined on whose negligence innocent lives were lost; whether there were complete security measures in place in the bus, and why the passengers were not evacuated through the emergency exits.
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