KARACHI/ DADU: Eight members of a family and the driver of the van they were travelling in were killed and four others injured in an accident on the Karachi-Hyderabad highway (M-9 Motorway) near the Nooria­bad police station on Monday.

The family had just returned from Saudi Arabia after performing Umra and was going home in Haji Wali Dino Tunio village of Naushahro Feroze district.

According to sources, the van was coming down from an elevated point on the motorway when the driver lost control over the wheel and the vehicle ploughed into a truck.

The deceased were identified as Ghulam Mustafa, 59; Sakina, 70; Rehana, 50; Mahreen; Shah Mohammad, 12; Zahidan, 36; Ali Ahmed, 46; Nusrat Khatoon, 36; and 40-year-old van driver Ghulam Hyder Sakhirani.

The injured were identified as Nazish, Lilan, Zeshan and Nida Fatima.

Nooriabad police station SHO Syed Nissar Ahmed Shah said that the van hurtled down into the truck. He added that both the truck and the van had been impounded and the driver and the cleaner of the truck had been arrested.

A source in the Motorway police said that the place where the accident occurred was considered one of the dangerous points on the newly constructed motorway where such accidents had been reported in the past. He said drivers often faced difficulty while descending from this higher point on the motorway.

Jamshoro SSP Syed Irfan Bahadur said that the bodies had been sent to the victims’ native home for burial.

The injured were taken to the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro, and the Civil Hospital in Hyderabad.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2017