Slippery conditions: Bus plunges into canal, at least 13 dead

The bus driver allegedly lost control due to the muddy road.

PESHAWAR/ MARDAN:

At least 13 people, including women and children, were killed and another 12 injured when a passenger bus plunged into a canal in Badhu Samarbagh village on Friday afternoon.

Thirteen bodies have been recovered from the canal, which was flooded due to continuous rain, a Rescue 1122 official said. The injured were shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) where their condition was said to be critical, while a few children are still missing, he added.

The overloaded bus was taking passengers to a nearby village to attend a wedding ceremony.

A Khazana police official confirmed the ill-fated passengers drowned in the flooded canal when the vehicle skidded and overturned on the muddy road.

He said that police reached the spot soon after the incident and a rescue operation is underway.

Some of the dead taken to LRH have been identified as Sher Afzal, Kainat, Sherana, Kolai, Godrai, Khalida, Kola and two children — Usman and Mahnoor.

A large number of locals reached the site to help rescue workers, but excessive water in the canal complicated the operation, said residents.

At least two people were said to be missing till the filing of this report. “We have been told that some children are missing and we are searching for them in the canal, but it will take time,” said another rescue worker.

At the LRH, family members were seen searching for their relatives in the morgue and surgical wards. While some were consoling each other, others were screaming and weeping inside the main building of the casualty department.

“Where can I find my brother Zeeshan? He is missing,” shouted Adnan while looking for his younger brother in the morgue. He then fell down on the floor and wept as over a dozen relatives tried to console him. “He is at home, somebody has called me from home,” replied his near-hysteric mother.

Adnan said he told his family not to hire that bus because he knew the driver was inexperienced, but the elders did not listen.

“This is the driver’s fault and he escaped from the scene while there are a number of people who are still missing in the water,” he claimed.

Two children, woman killed

Two minors died and four others were injured in two separate accidents in Takht Bhai tehsil, Mardan, while a woman was killed and three children injured when the roof of a house collapsed in Bara.

An official of Shergah police, Ikhteraz Khan said the roof of a house collapsed in Nawa Sher Kallay in the suburbs of Shergah, killing a child and severely injuring his two brothers, during a heavy downpour on Thursday night.

Ghulam Qadir’s sons Naveed, Shoaib and a three-year old were having breakfast in their house when the roof fell on them. Khan said the neighbours pulled the children out of the debris and took them to Mardan Medical Complex (MMC) where Naveed succumbed to his injuries.

In another incident, three children were injured when they fell from the roof of a house in Kuchyano Daag, Chaman Kallay.

Noorullah, the father of five-year-old Ismail and four-year-old Aiman, said his sons and their neighbour, eight-year-old Hassan, were flying kites on the roof when they fell. The children were taken to MMC, which admitted the others but referred Ismail to Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) because of his critical condition. Ismail succumbed to his injuries at LRH while the other two children were discharged from MMC after being administered first aid.

In yet another separate incident, a woman died while her three children were injured when the roof of a house collapsed due to heavy rainfall in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency, said an official of the political administration.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd, 2013.