Nine years on, parents of 19 schoolchildren await justice

A dumper truck had rammed into a school bus brining children back from a quiz competition

The ninth anniversary of the children who died in a school van accident passed in silence.

The dumper driver responsible for the crash roams free, law failed to take its course in the tragic incident that left many families devastated.

On January 15, 2014, a school van returning to Daulatpur after participating in a quiz competition in Nawabshah was hit by a dumper truck, as a result of which 22 people including 19 students, two school teachers and the van driver were killed. The heirs of the children are still waiting for justice.

Boys and girls of Bright Future Public High School were returning to Daulatpur after participating in a quiz competition at Khawaja Garden High School Nawabshah on 15 January 2014.

On the way, a dumper truck hit the van on Nawabshah-Qazi Ahmed Link Road, as a result of which 19 students out of 37 people in the van were killed on the spot.

Among the people who died in the traffic accident are Moazzam Ali Bhatti, Ufaq Arshad Bhatti, Atif Hussain, Syed Arbab, Noman Ali Arayen, Mansoorul Haq Arayeen, Humayun, Muhammad Asis, Hamza Irshad, Muhammad Yasin, Muhammad Anees, Fareeha Akram, Sadia Mazhar, Farisa. Harim Khanzada, Sidra Shaukat, Muqaddas Noor, Fareeha, Iqra, Israa,and school teachers Qari Bashir Ahmed Rajput and Sharmeen Ilyas Khanzada and van driver Muhammad Sachal Korai were included.

Eighteen students were also seriously injured in the traffic accident. It should be noted that in this van accident, five cousins of the former senior vice president Press Club Daulatpur, Abid Hussain Bhatti, were also victims of the accident. Among them, Muazzam Ali Bhatti and Ufaq Arshad Bhatti were died on the spot while three cousins Mauattar Shehzadi, Afnan Mustafa and Rubab Allah Rakha were seriously injured. Nine years have passed since the incident, Neither dumper driver was arrested nor punished.

The heirs of the children who died in the accident are still waiting for justice.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2023.