Mehboob Ali lost his wife, two daughters and six other members of his family in the accident. They were on their way to their village near Shikarpur when the accident took place. PHOTO: ONLINE
On Thursday, Ikhtiyar Ali left his home in Sukkur with five of his friends to appear for the Special Services Unit (SSU) test in Karachi.
He never thought that he would be the only one coming back.
“We boarded the bus at the Quaidabad bus stop and I was told to sit on the roof instead of the seats as there was no room inside,” he said while talking to The Express Tribune, adding that they were sitting on the roof of the bus and jumped when the passenger coach collided with an oil tanker.
Ali was one of the four reported survivors who went to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries in the tragic bus accident which claimed 62 lives on Saturday night.
The incident, he claimed, took place after three stops around 12:30am. “Suddenly a speeding oil tanker came from the opposite direction and hit our bus which was going to Shikarpur,” he said. “Since there were no seats available inside the bus, they had asked me to sit on the roof with 14 other people. Some of them were sleeping under a makeshift cover. I went and sat with two others under the open sky.” He added that after the collision, the bus caught fire but they managed to run away.
According to Ali, he jumped off the roof of the bus with two other men. The others, he added, did not make it in time and burnt to death.
“I was fortunate to survive,” he said looking at his injured foot. “All of my friend died in the accident. I feel miserable and helpless that I could not save any of my friends who were sitting in the bus.”
After he jumped from top, Ali pulled an unconscious man lying near the door of the bus. “I pulled him out in time,” he said. “I couldn’t save any of my dear one. They died in front of my eyes.”
Sources at the hospital and rescue services claim that many passengers tried to save themselves but could not do so in time. The few who succeeded, including a woman, broke a window and jumped out.
Ali claimed that more people could have been saved if the fire brigade had gotten there in time. He said that the fire tenders reached the scene an hour and half after the incident.
Mehboob Ali lost his wife, two daughters and six other members of his family in the accident. They were on their way to their village near Shikarpur when the accident took place.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 12th, 2015.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ