At least 18 people died and five others sustained injuries, two of them critically, after a passenger van fell into a ditch that was filled with rainwater alongside a section of the Indus Highway near the Sehwan Toll Plaza on Thursday night.
The passenger van, reportedly carrying devotees of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar from Khairpur Mirs to Sehwan, veered off the main road near the Sehwan Toll Plaza, where a cut was given to the road to channel the floodwater towards River Indus.
The locals as well as those travelling on the highway volunteered to pull out the bodies from the water before the police and rescue teams reached the spot. All the dead and injured were shifted to Abdullah Shah Institute of Medical and Health Sciences in Sehwan, Jamshoro district.
"We have received 18 bodies and among them eight are women, six girls and four boys," a doctor on duty told the media. The institute's director, Moinuddin Siddiqui, also confirmed the death toll. He said that among the five injured, three were in a stable condition, while two others were on ventilator.
According to the local police, the ill-fated van carried 23 to 24 passengers. The identity of the deceased and the injured could not be ascertained immediately but some reports suggested they belonged to the Phulpoto caste.
The locals waded in the water to pull out the bodies and injured from the van, which was lifted out of water with the help of a crane in the dark of the night, according to the rescuers and eyewitnesses.
Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon expressed profound grief over the tragic accident and said in a statement that rescue teams had been dispatched to the spot. Memon added that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had also taken notice of the accident.
The Indus Highway, a single carriageway with no barrier between the vehicles moving in the opposite directions in high speed, frequently witnesses fatal accidents. On the request of the Sindh government, the federal government had started the expansion of highway.
The Sindh chief minister had laid the foundation stone of the highway's expansion on December 12, 2017. Under the project, the highway's 132-kilometer stretch from Jamshoro to Sehwan was scheduled to be constructed with joint funding by both the governments.
However, the completion of the project seems to be a distant dream due to inordinate delay in the release of funds by the federal government.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ