RAWALPINDI: A medical student was killed when the metro bus she was travelling on ran her over on the elevated bus track in Rehmanabad on Friday.

Sumera Ahmed, 19 and a student of the Shifa Tameer-i-Millat University boarded the bus from Liaquat Bagh to get to her university in Islamabad.

The police said the bus driver pulled the emergency brakes due to the repair work on the track and the bus hit a pole on the side which caused the door to open.

Sumera fell from the bus as she was standing by the door and the bus ran her over.

Police and emergency services say Sumera died on the spot and her body was taken to the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital for a post-mortem. The bus driver fled the scene.

In his FIR, Sumera’s brother Sheeraz said he had accompanied his sister as she boarded metro bus no.61 from Liaquat Bagh at 7am on Friday and had returned back home in Sir Syed Chowk.

He said him and his younger brother Iyaz Ahmed found their sister’s body on the metro track when they got there after receiving a call from her friend, who was with her on the bus.

“My sister’s body was lying on the elevated bus track but the bus service was not suspended. The bus driver was untrained and did not apply the brakes even when he had dragged her for 20 to 25 feet,” he said.

He said the family had moved to Rawalpindi from Rajanpur a year ago so they could attend better educational institutions.

When they heard about the accident, a large number of students from her university reached DHQ Hospital, staged a protest and demanded the bus driver be arrested.

They dispersed when they were assured the bus driver will be arrested.

This is the third accident involving the metro bus service in which someone has been killed.

Meanwhile, a committee consisting of the city traffic officer, Rawalpindi Development Authority director, metro bus operations manager and a district administration official visited the scene of the accident on Friday.

The traffic police attributed the accident to ongoing construction work on the track and negligence on the part of the bus driver, who did not slow down while driving a large vehicle on the narrow track.

City Traffic Officer Shahid Yousuf said one half of the 18 feet wide track has been uprooted for repairs for the last two weeks, because of which the buses had to slow down and drive past that portion carefully.

He said the student was killed due to negligence of the bus driver and the slow pace of construction that had already been of poor quality.

The repairs have left just 9 feet for the metro bus to drive on. When the bus passed through this area, its rear tyres did not remain on the track. Today, after the student was killed, those doing the repair work tiled the portion of the track where the accident occurred.

Ahmed’s family has said they will bring to justice whoever is found responsible for the accident to prevent such tragedies in the future.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2017