September 27, 2006	Wednesday	Ramazan 3, 1427

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LAHORE, Sept 26: At least 10 people, including four minors, were killed and 19 injured, eight of them critically, in two traffic accidents here on Tuesday.

Six people, including three minors, were killed when a speeding truck first crushed two girls crossing the road and later rammed into a car carrying six members of a family at Bhuptian intersection on Raiwind Road in the morning.

Area people and students of a nearby college burnt down the vehicle, besides holding a protest demonstration blocking the road to traffic for a couple of hours.

Eyewitnesses said one of the front tyres of the truck (LXC-8645) coming from Thokar Niaz Baig burst and the driver lost control over it. The truck first crushed two young girls before skipping the road divider and ramming into a Lahore-bound car (LZW-827) killing its four riders, two of them minors.

Two more children travelling in the same car were injured who were shifted to Jinnah Hospital where their condition was stated to be critical.

Sumaira Sardar, 18, and Razia Sardar, 17, both sisters who were first crushed to death by the truck were on their way to take a garment factory bus for joining their duties at the unit.

While the car riders who were killed were identified as Asad Latif, 20, Sadia Latif, 9, and Rabia Rafiq, 10, and Mohsin Rafiq, 7. The injured were named as Ahsan Rafiq, 5, and Bilal Rafiq, 6.

All victims were residents of Bhubtian village. Haji Latif and Haji Rafiq, fathers of the five ill-fated children, deal in weapons in Neela Gunbad while Sumaira and Rajan were daughters of a labourer, Sardar.

Sher Khan, owner of the Sher Marble Factory, told this reporter that he was asleep in his office when a big bang woke him up at 6:30am. “As I looked out of window, a horrible scene was awaiting me. A truck had rammed into a car, tossing the latter to a roadside electricity pole.”

He said the accident also damaged 25-KV transformer and electricity pole installed outside his factory and he sustained electric shock as metallic window of his office was energised.

The locals as well as commuters gathered on the spot and pulled the bodies and the injured children out of the car wreckage as the police reached the spot after half an hour.

In another incident, four people, including a minor, were killed and 17 injured in a truck-wagon collision on Sherakot bypass in the evening.

Police said the driver of a Pakpattan-bound wagon, carrying passengers, could not control the vehicle when one of its tryes burst and he hit a truck (BLN-4195) parked at roadside on motorway.

Ashiq, 60, Muhammad Husain, 20, Furqan, 12 and an unidentified passenger died while Sadiq, Ghulam Rasool, Tanveer, Falaksher, Habibullah, Asif and others were injured. Eleven passengers received minor injuries and they were taken to Jinnah Hospital.

The names of one dead and 11 injured could not be known till the filing of this report.