QUETTA, July 25: At least 20 people, including a Naval officer and his family, were killed and 10 others injured in two road incidents near Khuzdar and Bela at the Karachi-Quetta national highway on Monday.
“Eighteen people, including a Navy officer, his wife, two sons, a brother and other members of the family died on the spot in two traffic accidents,” said police sources, adding that three others had succumbed to injuries in a Khuzdar hospital.
According to sources, the first accident took place near village Pir Omar, some 25km of Khuzdar, at around 10am when a passenger wagon coming from Khuzdar carrying 22 persons collided with a Quetta-bound trailer at a blind turn.
A huge container loaded on the trailer fell on the wagon, killing 10 passengers on the spot and injuring 11 others.
People from a nearby village and officials of the Khuzdar administration rushed to the site and took the bodies and injured to the Khuzdar Civil Hospital. Two more passengers died of multiple injuries in the hospital. Sources said that a lieutenant commander of the Pakistan Navy, Aziz Ahmed, was returning to Karachi with his wife, sons and other members of his family in a wagon after attending a engagement ceremony in Khuzdar.
Eleven of the 12 victims were identified as Lieutenant Commander Aziz Ahmed, Jamila Bibi, Shabir Ahmed, Bashir Ahmed, Abdullah, Wali Mohammad, Kamaluddin, Mohammad Yousuf, Abid Hussain, Sajid Hussain and Nazar. The twelfth body could not be identified.
The second accident took place at the Quetta-Karachi national highway near Bela, some 600km off here. A truck collided head-on with a trailer, leaving eight people dead, including the two drivers.
Police said a truck-carrying fruit was on its way to Karachi when a Quetta-bound trailer hit it. Two seriously injured persons were rushed to Karachi after giving initial medical treatment in a Bela hospital.
The dead were identified as Haji Mohammad Sharif, Abdul Kabir, Abdul Sattar, Kamal Khan, Mohammad Ishaq, Haji Ahmed and Mohammad Panah. The name of the young boy found among the dead could not be known.
QUETTA, July 25: At least 20 people, including a Naval officer and his family, were killed and 10 others injured in two road incidents near Khuzdar and Bela at the Karachi-Quetta national highway on Monday.
