At least 22 dead in Pakistan bus crash

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – At least 22 people were killed when the bus they were travelling in plunged into a ravine in Pakistan on Aug 25, rescue officials said.

The accident occurred near the town of Azad Pattan on the border between Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

“22 dead till now, including 15 men, six women and one child,” said Mr Farooq Ahmed, a spokesman for Rescue 1122 emergency services in Punjab.

Mr Muhammad Usman Gujjar, another spokesman for the rescue service, told AFP that “initial information suggests that a vehicle fell into a ravine”.

Road accidents with high fatalities are common in Pakistan, where safety measures are lax, driver training is poor and transport infrastructure often decrepit.

On Aug 24, the bodies of 28 pilgrims who died in a bus crash in Iran were returned to Pakistan.

The bus was carrying 51 Pakistani pilgrims to Iraq for the Arbaeen commemoration, one of the biggest events of the Shiite calendar, when it overturned and caught fire in front of a checkpoint in Yazd province on Aug 20, Iranian state TV reported.

Head of Iran’s traffic police Teymour Hosseini cited a brake failure and the steep road as the reasons for the crash. AFP