Deaths in Sehwan: Eight family members killed on way back from urs

The family had gone all the way from Orangi Town in Karachi to attend the urs.

HYDERABAD: Eight members of a Karachi family were killed and three were injured in a road accident on Indus Highway on Sunday when they were coming back from the shrine of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan.

The accident occurred when a passenger bus hit their car when it reached Sann town but the bus driver escaped right after the accident. SHO Irfan Akram identified the deceased as Rizwan Qureshi, his wife Quratullain Qureshi, and their four children, six-year-old Hania, four-year-old Habiba, four-year-old Abdul Rehman and three-month-old Hussain. The injured eight-year-old Zainab, an eight-year-old boy whose name is not known, and the car driver, Irfan Khokar were shifted to Liaquat University Hospital in Jamshoro. According to the police, the family belonged to Orangi Town in Karachi.

The 136-kilometre long Indus Highway has become dangerous to travel on as around 31 people have been killed and 87 injured in road accidents between January and May this year. In view of the growing casualties on this road, deputy commissioner Sajid Jama Abro wrote to the provincial government earlier this month requesting for the 136-km-long portion of this highway to be handed over to Mortorway Police.

He further requested the government to deploy motorway police on the highway before the urs celebrations to avoid such casualties but no action was taken.

Deaths from heat stroke

Meanwhile, three more people died of heat stroke in Sehwan taking the death toll to 16 in three days. The deceased include Muhammad Chuttan Mallah from Dadu, Siraj Ahmed from Rahim Yar Khan, and Mansoor Ali from Taxila.

The urs officially ended on Sunday evening when Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah was the chief guest at the concluding ceremony.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2013.