February 29, 2008	Friday	Safar 21, 1429

KARACHI, Feb 28: A couple and their infant son were killed and at least 25 others injured, four of them critically, on Thursday when a dumper hit their vehicle on the Hub River Road in North Karachi, police and witnesses said.

Surjani Town police said family members of Hashim Khan and his relatives from Hub were on their way to Machchar Colony to attend a marriage ceremony when a dumper collided with their vehicle near Makka Hotel.

Witnesses said a large number of people thronged the accident site and rescued the people from the devastated vehicle.

They said the onlookers and passersby became unruly following the accident and they put on fire two vehicles.

Fire-brigade officials said two trucks set on fire were partially gutted as the fire engine immediately reached the spot.

The police said Hashim Khan, the truck driver, his wife, Mohra, and their two-year-old son Wali Khan, died on the spot and 25 others sustained injuries.

The police said the dumper driver fled the scene and his vehicle was impounded.

The bodies and the injured were shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where sources said that the injured also included four infants aged between five to nine months.

They said four injured victims were in a serious condition.

The injured included Sher Zaman, Sakina Bibi, Gul Bibi, Gul Khan, Bakht Ali, Wali Daad, Jannat Gul, Fahad and Gul Shah.

Meanwhile, a 16-year-old boy and a five-year-old boy were killed in separate road tragedies. Ali Sher, 16, was crushed to death by a bus in Gulberg, while Saad Ullah was killed by a minibus near Gharib Shah shrine in Jackson police area.