Khairpur accident: Police to declare NHA officials absconders

SP Khairpur says NHA's inquiry committee has 24 hours to visit the site of the accident

KHAIRPUR: As the inquiry committee of NHA continues delaying the visit to the site of the Khairpur road accident, SP Khairpur Masood Bhangash said that in case the members do not visit in the next 24 hours, police will declare them "absconders".

Meanwhile, General Manager National Highway Authority (NHA) Mukesh Kumar has been suspended and summoned to NHA headquarters in Islamabad, while being replaced by Shabbir Ali Shah.

The offices of the highway authority were also sealed by the police in Khairpur.

"It is good to see the government taking responsibility for the first time" said a senior official of NHA.

Earlier today, the officials of NHA were also expected to visit the district to nominate individuals in the First Information Report (FIR) filed against the highway authority but they never did so.

On November 14 , the authority had suspended three officials on charges of negligence that led to the killing of 60 people and injuring several others as a passenger bus collided with a truck on Theri Bypass.

The authority had also completed its initial inquiry into the accident. In its report, NHA had accused the driver of taking a wrong U-turn which led to the collision with the truck. The report also said the driver had not slept for past 23 hours.

Initially, the highway authority had been partially blamed for the incident with reports that the NHA had failed to provide an alternate route to commuters before starting the construction work where the accident took place.