KARAK:
At least 15 people were killed and 23 others were injured when a bus, en route from Karachi to Peshawar, rammed into a 22-wheeler trailer-truck on the Indus Highway on Saturday morning.
Police confirmed the accident took place at 3:00am near Kaniza Speena Turn, in Karak district.
District Police Officer (DPO) Sajjad Khan said 15 people – among them four children and as many women – were killed in the deadly crash.
He added that a state of emergency was declared in the district headquarters hospital (DHQ) where some of the injured were taken. However, those with critical wounds were ferried to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.
DPO Khan blamed the bus driver, who is also among the fatalities. The truck driver, on the other hand, fled the scene. “We have started investigation and will soon reveal who was responsible for the tragedy,” he added. Dr Lal Sharaf Dawar, the medical superintendent of DHQ Karak, told The Express Tribune that despite a shortage of medics and paramedical staff, his team performed surgeries on over 10 wounded passengers.
The victims mostly belonged to different areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa who worked as day labourers in Karachi, he added. A one-year-old baby girl miraculously survived the crash – however her entire family, which hailed from the Chhauta Lahor area of Swabi district, was killed. The child was shifted to the house of government administrator.
District Coordination Officer Ali Anan Qamar said a large number of locals volunteered for the rescue operation. “The residents even rented vehicles to take bodies of the victims to their hometowns,” Qamar said, adding that the people living near the hospital and highway provided food and medicines to the injured and relatives of the deceased on an emergency basis.
Locals demanded National Highway Authority (NHA) officials to remove Kaniza Speena Turn – termed “the deadly turn” – from the highway as it has been the cause of several fatal accidents in the past.
Provincial Minister for Prisons Mian Nisar Gul, along with local politicians, visited the hospital to enquire after the victims.
The fatalities were identified as Hunar Shah and Dawa Khan from Khyber Agency, Sartaj Khan from Nowshera, Nisar Hussain, Anwar Ali, Shakeel Khan Sani, and Arbaz, from Swabi, Fawad and Fatima from Khairpur in Sindh, Zeba from Peshawar, Seema Bibi and Istemarija from Karachi. One of the deceased could not be identified.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2012.
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