KHAIRPUR: Fourteen passengers were killed and 20 others were injured when a bus rammed into a truck head-on near the Pir Sadaq bus stop on the Mehran National Highway at around 5am on Wednesday.

The injured who were moved to the Thari Mirwah rural health centre (RHC) and the Gambat taluka hospital told journalists that the bus driver was trying to overtake a camel and cart and failed to see the truck coming from the opposite direction when the bus collided with the truck head-on.

Sukkur Commissioner Mohammad Abbas Baloch said that buses did not have the permission to use the Mehran National Highway but the drivers violated it often.

There were a number of police checkpoints at Nangreja, Therhi and other places to stop buses from coming onto the highway, but many drivers managed to speed past them. An inquiry had been ordered into the accident, he said, adding that the bodies of the victims would be sent to their native places by air from Sukkur airport by Wednesday evening.

The bodies of 12 passengers were identified as Khalique Ahmed, 60; Hayat Khan Pathan, 40; Mohsin Ghulam Pathan, 38; Irfan Pathan, 33; Atta Mohammad Kewal, 30; Ms Sonia Riaz, 25; Fayaz Mastoi, 28; Mohammad Mohsin Qureshi, 33; Zareen Pathan, 39; Gul Naz Begum, 28; Zulfiqar Qureshi, 42, and Hamadullah, 40. Two bodies remained unidentified till the report was filed.

The injured admitted to Thari Mirwah RHC and Gambat taluka hospital were identified as Samina Khatoon, Shazia Khatoon, Parveen Azam, Jameel Pathan, Shaukat Arain, Asad Qureshi, Ghulam Mustafa Memon, Hazrat Ali Pathan, Asad Ali Arain, Yasir Arain, Irfan Ahmed, Zulfiqar, Jameela, Ishtiaq Ahmed, Sajid Ali, Mohammad Yasir, Sajid Manzoor, Jawad Ahmed and Ishtiaq. One of the injured could not be identified.

Relatives of the injured arrived at the Gambat taluka hospital and the Thari Mirwah RHC to look after their loved ones while some took the injured to Karachi for treatment.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2015

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