Extremely sad incident indeed Again the poor & innocent people are the sufferers.

A monumental tragedy that will be remembered for years,comparable to 9/11 or mh 370.Psychics might say they had visions of the inferno,scientists will ponder over the loop in time that creates such immutable destiny.

Government to have strict control on transfer of hazard material like petrol. People learned never to get close to leaking tanker or you will burn to death with greed. Company involved should have their license to transfer petrol be revoked or suspended for two month or it may be driver mistake to reach his family before Eid. Company should have control over drivers. Investigation will be JUST a joke, few connected people will be awarded the investigation, they will paid on side by the company owning the truck. This is job of military tribunal.

Eid celebrations are stepping ahead systematically with spiritual fervour and festivity amid trickling eyes because tearjerking tanker tragedy in Ahmadpur East. Entire country has put on a pall of pain. Pigments of Eid everywhere have become pallid. Some people lost their lives in lust of a few liters petrol but some still celebrating Eid out of prisons after eating everything up. State of Bahawalpur was founded by Sardar Bahawal Khan Baloch. Bahawalpur was a golden sparrow of then times but people yesterday with buckets in hands like begging bowls were moving madly to collect petrol to purchase Eid clothes. Unluckily, South Punjab always has been neglected during development marathon. Mass awareness quite compulsory to tell tellingly illiterate and out of classrooms majority about colossal and catastrophic consequences when playing with fire. A lot of Eid greetings to your greatness at this auspicious occasion drenched with due of difficult time because Bahawalpur Infernal episode.

The author forgets that police officials and even the driver of the bus told villagers to keep clear of the oil tanker. Similar incidents in other countries, notably Nigeria all involve poor people who ignore warnings to stay away from oil lines and spilled tankers. I think this judgement against state officials is too severe. This tragedy could have been averted had people the common sense to avoid this spilled tanker. Is it really the state's job to tell people ( which the police did) about the dangers of a spilled tanker or to tell people not to light a cigarette ( which someone did) near the fluid from the tanker. I hate to blame the poor souls who died but unfortunately there is some degree of blame they must assume for negligence that cannot be pinned on the state.

RIP, departed souls. It is an avoidable tragedy. Lack of awareness of danger of leaking petrol and high summer temperatures are recipes for petrol catching fire. State is responsible for not giving such a simple knowledge to public. It is total failure of state. I am sure such incident will repeat again, safety information is last thing in the minds of Pakistan's bureaucracy.

Blame rulers to keep people poor and uneducated that they have to collect the oil from a oil tanker met with accident.

The driver of the oil tanker was speeding and did not slow down on a sharp turn which caused the tanker to over turn. Two things are very obvious which caused the accident. The highways should not have any sharp turns and the driver did not take precautions and did not slow down on the turn. The driver of the tanker should be charged wirh reckless driving and murder of hundreds of innocent people. The area of the accident should have been secured by the police and no one should have been allowed to go near the tanker. The emergency response teams were not equipped or trained to handle such situations.

Safety awareness is a complete miss in majority of Pakistanis, all due to lack of education. Government spends money on projects of prestige to gain popularity whereas priorities like education health etc. are ignored. Government must take full responsibilty for trgedies like these and start paying attention to basic requirements of the ordinary people.

The tyre of the tanker busted due to which the tanker fliped over. But, yes the lack of improper educations and safety awareness to the public is a very major cause in this unfortunate incident. But still Its a common sense that oil is a very dangerous hazard but unfortunately common sense is a unique and rare entity in the people of Pakistan even in the educated ones.

Is there any Regulatory Agency in Pskistan that controls the transportation of HAZMAT ? If so, it's their responsibility with the help of local police to cordon off the whole area to ensure safety.

They were not only poor people, video being circulated shows that folks came by Car, Motorcycles were also trying to loot the petrol.... unaware of Safety standards.. may be.... innocents?? not sure

Civic sense in public missing in abundance here.how they ever missed thinking of standing on oil bomb for collecting it. Such mishaps can't be controlled unless driver, passerby and residents of area sensitised the matter as dangerous for lives, they all took deadly risk.

Education and welfare are the responsibility for the governments through, legislation and/or provision.

They continuously fail the people of Pakistan and show no remorse or action so this doesn't happen again.

Who is responsible? Federal and provincial govt i.e. PMLN. Yes one can say that people should not have gathered around in such dangerous situation. Perhaps some knew of the danger but still took the risk for free petrol thinking that nothing will happen and perhaps some never knew about the danger at all. We will never know BUT one thing is clear, the area should have been immediately cordoned off by the police until it was safe. This is purely the fault of the police and emergency services which means the federal and/or local govt in which case it's PMLN. If people still don't throw these useless bums out at election time then I am not sure what else they are waiting for ... another useless metro perhaps. I am angry and sad at the same time.

Fuel is a dangerous material and all such materials should be transported under a strict protocol - the dangerous the chemical/material the more the precautions. Training of Drivers, their Qualification, Experience, Speed Limits, Vehicle Inspection - checking on different posts. Number of hours the driver has been driving - all need to be checked - like any where in the world . and in the end - these protocols must (MUST) be adhered to - and not like - we have millions of laws and no one cares for them - there is no need for any law - if no one obeys it and neither there is one who monitors and checks it

How come ministers never resign in Pakistan like in other countries where things like these happen?

I will say its not driver mistake ya accidents happen but its a common sense that what does oil do. Even illiterate have that much of a sense. Its our own mistakes we can not blame driver and other authorities and as news say the Police or highway petrol told them to get away from there and they still did not listen so what else can you do. But anyway it a sad incident.

In my personal opinion the motorway police should not have warned people in stead they should have ensured no one gets close to it. These incidents happen all over the world. However the response from the police differe based on their understanding of the criticality of the incident and the repose it demands. Traveling on U.K. Road, we have found that the police and amulance staff's first duty is stop the loss of life by encircling the area or closing down any routes and not letting anyone close or near by. The vehicles carry a code explaining what is it carrying and warning signs along with code - explaining what to do should there a incident like this.

The government is absent from the lives of the people, if the police had taken control of the situation the loss of life could have been prevented. Wish the poor of this country, the vast majority that is, would raid the houses of power like they did the oil tanker- unlike this tragedy, that might produce some real results.

The politicians are to be blamed for making the country so poor that people risked their life get leaked petrol and earn few rupees to feed themselves.

The licence dept how come they issued licence of hwavy truck drivers who are non trained illegal immigrants

Transport company ,government authorities , people who dead and alive. And finally i don't follow rules and safety instructions so why should I blame other.

Poverty is the biggest cause of this tragedy ,and then lack of professionalism in traffic police , if they have cardon off the area after accident , this tragedy may have been prevented

Very tragic incident just a day before EID. Lack of hazard identification awareness, almost no existence of highway dept. emergency response and poor local medical facilities are to be blamed for high death toll. The petroleum transport contractor does not appear to have any emergency notification and response planning either. Hazardous material transport is strictly regulated in developed countries which require well coordinated emergency response planning. Major transport companies spend huge amount of financial resources training their own staff and also developing capabilities of local authorities involved in response. The news report i heard says the unfortunate victims ignored the driver warning and continued collecting oil for almost 30-40 min which means no highway police until that time to cordon off the effected area. Probably many live could have been saved had the needed medical treatment provided in time. Similar incident also happened in past but no lesson learned.

The author has rightly pointed out the absence of realization that people should have been prevented from entering the dangerous spot containing thousands of liters of highly inflammable material. Nobody sensed the gravity of situation. Local civic services are responsible for this. With regards to non-availability of burn centers at each hospital is highly debatable. Even the most advanced countries do not have this. You have to allocate a portion of hospital resources to different specialties. Moreover, the life expectancy of burn cases largely on degree of burn. This accident, however, points towards general lack of education in the country.

Its always easy playing Monday morning quarterback. Sorry, but I don't agree with the basic premise of this article. The author in his fault finding mission focuses on after the fact events. I agree with all the post tragedy events that are mentioned in the article and expose our weak emergency preparedness and governance. However, the main trigger of this tragedy is non existent safety measures needed to control and avoid hazardous material leaks and spills during an accident. In the US, not a week goes by where a truck either overturns or is involved in an accident, but mostly not a drop of its hazardous/flammable conten is spilled on the road. The main reason is double and separated storage tanks insulation that are highly impact resistant. Reason we don't do it in Pakistan is because it is expensive and cuts into the profit margins of the operating companies. You can't change human behavior but we can certainly implement controls that lead to an accident.

I had seen this type of accidents in India also myself where oil tanker become turtle but here in fraction time police barricades tanker no one is allowed near the tanker and fire extinguisher suitable for fuel fire positioned near it.

Do we have the department of public safety ..hold them responsible ...if none than our government should be held liable after all public safety is their responsibility

poverty and fate.

The truck if with proper specs for such hauling should not have overturned . Secondly the carriers of such combustible goods have sop in such circumstances and the company is responsible for its implementation. Failures on this account are the source of the tragedy. They need to be held accountable.

Motorway Police there was at least one mobile patrol car was on the seen at the time when people were filling their cans... how Police could not stop people ....

I don't understand the state of mind of the author. Is it the state's duty to tell people not to shoot on their own foot? Imagine the state of mind of the villagers for a second: using the mosque's loud speakers to inform everyone to reach the would be scene of crime, stealing someone else's property, and disregarding advice of police and the driver to stay away from the tanker. Unbelievable!!!!

This is the result of centuries of continuous flaws in our social political and economicl system.. Accidrents do happen in even the most developed countries of the world... The facilities don t exist in Pakistan and people are intentionally kept uneducated,,, they were not aware of the danger that just a slightest of spark can result in a huge blast... These issues can not be prevented untill we don thavre a educated society and it will take time but we have to start now or never

that said, very sad. i pray for the deceased.

Very sad Incident. Ruling government should take responsibility for this negligence.

Lack of awareness and Education

I am foreigner, In my country most of people blames whom tried to steal the petrol. At first they are thieves.It is coursed by their own fault. Is it just usual common behavior of Pakistani to steal the other people's belongings even if the petrol spilled out to the road ? It can't be the reason they are poor. Thief is thief. Everybody said it is sad, but why they don't look back themselves for what they did ?

@ Khan what driver has to do with people stealing fuel from his over turned truck instead of helping him out !

about 30 yrs ago similar accident took place in Maharashtra, in which scores of villagers were burned, because they went to collect petro product from an overturned tanker, and it suddenly caught fire.

May God bless and forgive the deceased. I am not able to get the images and news footage out my mind and tears flow nonstop .It's shameful that so many people lost their lives, on the same time, it was theft, and unethical for people to gather to collect spilled petrol. Failure of all the institutions, (1) Parents/elders (2) local /national governments (3) Religious schalors/ Local Masjid Imams. As a society failing to raise ethical and informed generations it's mob mentality. It's maybe one of kind shameful event in the world and does not projects good image of Pakistan.

The authorities were ultimately responsible for not putting a valid radius restriction around the area and the gravity and potential danger should have been explicit. But we see this time and time again in Pakistan. In petrol and CNG stations, there are clear warning signs stating that one should not smoke, but it seems to not drive home the point - some of the public still do it.

What is really required is adequate education, advertisements both in the newspapers and on television depicting the danger of all things flammable and this needs to be enforced by the roadside authorities. Yes, there is a natural, youthful impetus for all of us to obtain something free, be it oil or petrol, but when the dangers involved are highlighted this can curtail the problem to a degree.

Fully agree with editorial.

@Sukhera

How can you say driver was speeding, were you with the driver at time of the accident,I KNOW from personal experience having driven on the GT road, Motorways in Pakistan that majority of truck are under powered and travel about 25 MPH ( 40 KPH ) on motorways and even slower on the GT Road .These truck are incapable of travel at high speeds like in the U.K,USA, AND EUROPE where truck dive at routinely 100 KPH or more. Ultimately the victims and the person or person who cuase the fire by light matches or cigerate lighter are responsible for the own deaths,and others who were telephone friends and relatives to come to the secne of the accident to get oil/ petrol according to news reports.Also according to news reports police and the driver were telling people not to go any where near to over turned tanker due the danger caused by the leaking petrol.

@Humza You nailed it. Fully agree.

Education, Education, and Education. Sincerity and follow rules and regulations.

@asad you are just right man.

Extremely sad on this event and share grief of the affected families.The article has exposed our societal development issues as well. Am not sure when and from where the investments wll come in for developing people and hence the society. There may be road accidents but managing them well and safely is the call of the day. More importantly the organizations using roads for hazardous materials have to bear some more responsibity in educating masses about the hazards of their products along their routes.

@Asad best article of the lot

Totally agree with asads article

As sad as it is; this tragedy can only be attributed to lack of early education. In most civilized countries, the children are told to stay away from electricity, petrol and natural gas. Prior to the explosion, it was amazing how people were collecting inflammable gasoline in pots and pans and roaming so close to the tanker. Little they knew that it is not unusual for rollover tankers or even passengers cars to explode after accidents. This could be from engine sparks, motorcycle start or overheated parts. Blaming government is easy way out, however, people must also take responsibility of their own action. I doubt that even in an advanced city, the help could have arrived so swiftly and quickly, however, people witnessing it wouldn't have dared getting so closed to the tanker. That is the only difference.

A point of deep concern for us as our brothers, sisters children got brunt just before eid and left us sad with their ashes. This is the time to wake up to ensure safe transportation of LNG in the country which is fortunately can not be collected in shopping bags yet a very risky substance alongwith gasoline and requires state of the art mechanism to ensure safety standards. Every vehicle must pass through rigorous checks and its transportation must be handled by certified companies only. Tragedy must be remembered as resolution to make people more safe on roads. The legislators wake up alarm seems to be only snoozing to be surface again if not up now. Build institutions not personal friends.

There are some flaws in this editorial. True, the victims can be forgiven to not fully appreciate the dangers associated with exposed petroleum - due to no-fault ignorance, etc. However, any living person would know that this was outright theft. If poverty can excuse theft, then Pakistan should get ready for incidents far worse than this, and the poor won't necessarily be the ones getting hurt.

My take on this is simple. The blame primary goes to the immorality of the State of Pakistan, its institutions, and mostly its people. From stealing in broad daylight as a group on the last day of Ramadan, to lack of road regulations, to the lack of first responders, and to the lack of basic resources being devoted to the small communities. It is a stark reminder seeing the burned victims, most of them who were burned during an act of theft, that even the holy month of Ramadan can't infuse basic morality into Pakistanis where none exists. We need schools to teach more ethics and less Arabic.

Rest In Peace!

My deepest sympathy for the loss of life, especially children. May be harsh but a reality, some poor and other not so poor didn't come to help but steal. Poverty or otherwise shall never be an excuse for theft. Perhaps death was too harsh a consequence, a lesson for us, the remaining? My younger brother once got involved in a car accident, after gaining some sense what has happened he tried to call for help only to find out that his mobile phone went missing in the ensuing melee. In our society we need to address this behavior of treating other's (unattended) property, wealth and woman as war spoil. It starts at home, top-down or down-up whatever the order.

Considering forthcoming elections, this comparison would have made interesting reading and if great variations are found, I will encourage demanding answers from the political class about that. Meri baatein talkh hain, but are they not the truth?

As tragic as it is and we all know the severity of this but i do not think that any amount of men and machines at the local hospitals could have made any difference. We all do know that petrol is combustible, and in that amount it is explosive. It was only a matter of seconds that the fuel would ignite either by the trucks running engine, metallic pans scrapping against the road creating sparks or the traffic that passed over the spilled fuel itself. A tiny spark was all that was needed, and it did happen for the explosion to engulf all who were around and filling up pots and pans with fuel. Education, Education and nothing but Education can prevent such disasters.

It is so easy to identify all the possible causes for this tragedy, such as education, safety trainings, security awareness, etc. What's important is how we can learn and act upon! This is the first tragedy that happened, and there should be more hidden ones to be fixed.

good followers, they went for fuel instead of help drive

The local administration reached the place of accident in 90 minutes instead of 2 minutes. If swiftly reached the site in 2 minutes, and cordon off ,all lives could be saved.

illiteracy

Any such incidents happen, we either blame some foreign agencies or other departments and forget it after a week. There is nothing done to fix to prevent them. Whole of our policies must be overhauled.

Sorry for the great loss but its a learning for the future. Shows lack of education and awareness.Remember there is nothing such as a free lunch. Our basic training is lacking at our homes. Not to go for something you are not trained for.

Why were police not call in to seal the area immediately?Hold corrupt government of Punjab responsible for this tragedy, if PM and other politicians were to do their job without corruption, people would have followed their leaders lead, there is no law in the Pakistan to deal with this kind of emergency now nor in the future, we can build nuclear bomb but we can protect our citizens.

All these oil tankers are fitted with gps devices for tracking. Once the truck had gone over the blip, it should have been a regular occurence to inquire from the driver and ask the relevant authorities to barricade the area. These are regular SOP's for any fire hazard accident site. People, even if situated nearby in housing had to be removed And this is not just Bahawalpur. I see petrol pump security guards in Karachi routinely smoking cigarettes by the pumps. People using cellphones while standing next to the nozzle pouring petrol into their cars. Attendants pouring petrol into pepsi bottles, and petrol spray flying everywhere.We are mass producing illiterate officers of law and regulation, and that's why the incidence of accidents, specially fires, is at an all time high.Not in villages, but even cities like Karachi and Lahore. We are all sitting on powder kegs, awaiting from one accident to another.

I have personally visited the site and met dozens of people privy to facts about this incident. Real culprit behind this tragedy is Motorways Police. They showed negligence in number of ways. 1) They did not force people to disburse, 2) They did not demand additional support from Punjab Police, 3) They allowed motorists and motorcyclists to gather on road for filling their tanks with 'looted' petrol. Motorways Police waited at least 45 minutes for this tragic incident to happen. During their routine patrolling, Motorways Police officers don't waste even a second in imposing fine to a motorcyclist who is driving without safety helmet and a motorist who drives without fastening safety belt. Was safety of hundreds of poor villagers, passer biers, motorcyclists and motorists not their concern?

From driver to management, Police to rescue operatives, there are so many departments to blame. However, if the Police had blocked the road on both sides and evacuated the area in time, we could have avoided the tragedy.

One can see traffic moving on road without and hazard. The time between accident and explosion should be more than one hour - It is a well educated guess. This time was more than sufficient for only two Police mobiles to cordon the scene. Alas! we have failed at every level. More tragic is that nobody will learn anything.

The government should establish proper guidelines how an incident like this shall be handled by police and others, so in future such accidents receive proper management to avert such horrific tragedy.

We are habitually bound to harp on the same string.we always think about the problem, not about the solution. Just like this tragical incident,we have similar things which can result in same for example s Look at traffic rules and regulations, how criminally we ignore them.how many younger kids without having a license run motorcycle s happily,and there is hardly anyone to check them. Then look at hanging electricity wires,choked sewrgae holes, wastage heaps, cigarettes selling to teens, all these and alike are absolutely unlawful and dangerous but we're oblivious to all these . So what is the use of crying over spilt oil.

" The chain of flaws —from highways with inadequate safety resources to medical services that were quickly overwhelmed — is a failure of government. "

Very correctly diagnosed. Now the solution anyone?

It was sad, It was horrifying. .. But what is more horrifying and sad is to politicizing this accident.

You don't need education to judge if spilled petroleum at an accident site is dangerous or not. That is common sense. And no amount of education can impart common sense.

A lot can be said about this tragedy; over laoding; sub-standard tankers carrying dangerous cargo. A great tragedy has befallen the people and all my sympathies to them. We need to change our mindset, sorry to say people need to take responsibility for taking something that did not belong to them - I am sure their is a better word for it.

Greediness can lead to disasterous consiquences

Very very sad and hurting,unrepeatable tragedy, but the blame goes to these people, what happened to their senses that they came for a free lift of oil with their kitchen utensils and bottles without caring for their lives. People and police standing there were warning them.

sad news... leaking fuel is always dangerous.. people should not think of looting other wise may pay price by life

This tragedy has taken place due to ignorance of our people and the reason for that is lack of education, which governments after government since 1947 have miserably failed to improve upon. Feudal system is Pakistan is equally to be blamed who intentionally have played a key role in depriving the rural population away from education in their own vested interests. Unless literacy rate is significantly improved throughout Pakistan, we will continue to see and hear about such incidents.

Very sad incident indeed! However serious efforts are also needed to undo the 'loot mentality'.

As I have commented on yr earlier news, it is necessary that SOPs are drawn for all activities of a company particularly safety related scenarios. There must be training and regular mock drills. Top management of the company should take these aspects very seriously. There are certification systems for safety.

The Oil truck spill over tragedy exposes the inept administration vociferously exclaiming that we are unable to handle emergencies effectively in future as well for lack of safety system, training and modern equipment.

Total lack of safety it was. If the concerned department came on time and fabricate the fencing. Then no life would be gone in vain.

It will take generations for our citizens to be cognizant of dangers involved in such activities. We have to work really hard as a nation to overcome such disasters in the future.

Government is responsible as it dont makes rules where special permit/licence is required to drive special type of vehicles. Training includes for driver what to do in case of emergency. Like any other system, adequate licencing is a big failure of our government system. Lessons are never learned.

Easy to blame the government for everything. But don't you think people themselves should have had the sense to stay far away from the oil tanker? Common sense was all that was necessary to avert this tragedy. The last thing that should have been on peoples minds at that time, especially during ramzan, was not to take that which was not theirs for the taking.

Sorry, but it was their greed and 'muft-khora' attitude that led to them being there, collecting petrol in pots, pans, bottles and jerricans. Fine and fair to blame the government for inadequate medical facilities but let's not assume that people don't know petrol burns. Reports say people called their friends and neighbors to invite them to the take some of the loot. This attitude is not simply the result of illiteracy or ignorance; it is a diseased mentality prevalent across many.

Why not put the blame on the people who despite police warnings to move away disregarded their call to safety. While it is a sad innocent the blame blame should go where it belongs, on the people who were technically stealing fuel!

Are there any safety SOPs in place for Police, Highway Patrol and Fire Brigade in case of flammable or toxic spills. If not, why not? Who will fix this? Are safety drills carried out and do senior officers participate? If not, why not? How can this be fixed? If SOPs are in place, if senior officers have drilled them, who is responsible for not cordoning off the area with an adequate response?

I hold the District Administration of Bahawalpur responsible for the tragedy. In particular, the Assistant Commissioner of Tehsil Ahmedpur.

It is sad that most of the Pakistanis keep blaming the government instead of themselves. Why did the jahil people try to steal the oil? They have only themselves to blame. The government is doing a very good job at the moment,

The gap between crash and explosion was of 10 to 15 minutes but still Motar way police failed to prevent people from going there.

District Bahawalpur has big population. Can any one explain why nobody thought of a Burns Hospital in Bahawalpur ? Why ?

GREED

@saeed - The only reason the Motorway Petrol couldn't help or didn't help that they didn't have any training in handling a situation/disaster of this magnitude. It seems that prior to the explosion it was a picnic scene where people decided to collect free petrol. Little they knew how inflammable and risky it was to be near the accident site. Blame it all on Police, Government or people who died in the accident; but actual blame lies in lack of early education; by early means form the childhood; by teaching children; to stay away from Petrol, Electricity and Natural Gas. We all can be after the fact judges, but the fact the matter is that hundreds of families may now not have monthly income of those people who risked their lives for few rupees of free Petrol. Sad not but Sad!

All money goes to Lahore not entire Punjab. Parachinar terrorist attack signifies the utter failure of security apparatus despite their inflated success claims.

is it clear that those burnt bike and car owners were poor?

One single spark could have ignited those fumes. No one should have gotten anywhere near that overturned truck.

Its really disheartening.... RIP the departed soul.... We indian are with u in such difficult times...

Pathetic! We do not want to write about the people accountable for Parachinar GENOCIDE......

@Mohammed Aziz .you determine from the road marks when it hit the road and how long it dragged before it came to rest. You don t have to be with the driver to know if the driver was speeding or not. 99% over turns are caused by high speed over turns.

Very pertinent questions have been raised in this editorial which must be answered by the Punjab government. Complete focus is towards Lahore. South Punjab is much neglected region. Health facilities are poor. I think Government should take on concerns like special vehicles driver'training, road safety, hazardous material awareness among masses and most important triggering response immediately by concerned circles if such incidents are reported. This incident is total failure of PML N governement ruling Punjab since nine years.

Deep soul searching and a through probe notwithstanding, we all know that human life specially in the rural areas has never been and nor is it one of the priorities of any government of the day.

Yes this is what I am saying. This incident is totally lack of awareness which in turn is again a blame on government. What if those ill fated people were educated, they could have been able to be known of the consequences of their actions.

This tragedy comes down to the extreme poverty levels that exist in Pakistan. The fact that people were prepared to risk their lives to get a few litres of free petrol in spite of the risks involved speaks volumes of the prevailing living and awareness conditions in Pakistan.

We can not continue to blame the politicians as they are also from amongst the people. The vast majority of people who get into politics from this country will eventually develop the traits of the politicians that we despise so much.

People don't even know how to stand in a line in Pakistan and yet we think this tragedy could have been avoided. These incidents will continue to happen until the education levels are substantially increased amongst the population

A tragic incident indeed! Our society doesn't have contingency plans and we learn from our mistakes and sometimes, from other people's mistakes. The Government of Pakistan should take initiative and develop a disaster management system and implement contingency plans in the country to avert such mishaps.

I think it's a high time, someone should wake up!

Karachi

@Humza.The accident happened due to human error and the driver of the tanker bears full responsibility for this tragedy. The vigorous driver training for drivers who transport hazardous materials is needed urgently.

A thorough analysis of incident. PM didn't utter single word what has happened and steps his government has taken. A million to each victim here whose greed embarked the tragedy but those who were the victim of terrorism he is just quiet.

@ Khan - I am tired of hearing people blaming the greed responsible for the death of these people. This accident could have happened anywhere in the world and people would have reacted the same way. It's not greed it's opportunity, there is a huge difference! This event turning so deadly is full resonsibility of the government , the local administration and the police. They are the first responders and accountable for the lives lost. NS is throwing money at deceased families but not asking the local gov. and the police what the heck they were doing? If I take the argument for a minute that this was caused by greed then let me ask you this , was it not police's responsibility to prevent them from stealing the fuel? No matter how you look at it, this was totally avoidable and police and local administration are to blame for it. I am very glad to see this author getting it right in placing the blame where it fairly belongs.

@Shahzad .your argument that it's not steaing but an opportunity. Stealing in every country except Pakistan is when you take some one,s property without their permission and without payment. This is the reason we have courts and the police to protect people,s property. I don,t agree with your views.

Bhawalpur was an accident, an act of God, but Parachinar was delibrate, how come very little coverage by tv stations and other media outlets. Why this unjust behavior, it was done against minorities and in a remote area so it doesn't matter. You become equally guilty when yo don't speak up against evil. There is no difference between those animals and Pakistani media. Shame on you all.

@Danish Amin very true

Peace to departed souls. Hate to bring in politics but spending scant resources on efforts to grab neighbor's land is not wise; use them for imparting education to the needy.

These Religious killings MUST be stopped.

I disagree that it was unawareness on part of the victims, it was sheer greed and act of theft, period.

No one else can be blamed but the victims.