HYDERABAD: Sixteen people, including women and children, were killed and 15 others injured in a road accident between a trailer truck and a minibus on the National Highway at Bago Shar village in Matiari district, within the remit of the Bhitshah police station, early on Monday morning.

A wedding party of bridegroom Waris Ali Zounr travelling in a minibus, a pickup and a car were coming back to their Mohammad Hashim Zounr village, New Hyderabad City, from Punhoon Khan Zounr village, Sakrand taluka, Shaheed Benazirabad district, at around 1.30am.

The pickup driver was changing a deflated tyre of the vehicle parked on the roadside with the minibus parked behind it for protection. Family members told Waris Ali to go home with his bride in the car. Soon after the car left the speeding trailer truck rammed into the minibus from behind, thrusting the standing passengers and the minibus off the road into an around seven-foot deep ditch. The front cabin of the trailer ran over the passengers and also hit the fallen vehicle. Some of the passengers were out of the minibus while others were seated in it when the tragedy happened.

Except a young woman, all injured admitted to hospital are in stable condition

The 16 killed were: Mohammad Ameen (the groom’s father), 55; his two sons, Rashid, 25, and Imtiaz, 30; their close relatives Mohammad Saleem, 55; Muneer, 45; Haji Madad Ali; Ayub, 45; Mohammad Bachal; Suhail, 55; Mohammad Ayub; Shamiran, 12; Shahnila, 30; Sahibzadi, 22; Shahzad, 16; Junaid, 14; Humaira, 10; Samina, 26; Mohammad Ramzan, 25; Shabbir, and three-year-old Iqra.

The 15 injured were identified as Afaque, 20; Majid, 10, Shahryar, 10; Fazeela, 30; Samina, 40; Shamim, 12; Sadaf, 25; Ameerzadi, 4; Mohammad Ramzan, 45; Humaira, 3; Abdul Latif, 37; Rukhsana, 26; Mirzadi, 45; Shabbir Ahmed, 46, and Shaina, 30.

Following the accident, police personnel and Edhi volunteers reached the spot and shifted the bodies and injured to the Hala Taluka Hospital and Bhitshah rural health unit. The bodies were handed over to their relatives after medico-legal formalities and the injured were taken to the Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) Hyderabad for treatment.

LUH chief casualty medical officer Dr Khalique Memon said that the injured started arriving there at around 2am and the last person was there by 7am.

He said 30-year-old Fazeela was in a serious condition because of some chest injury and was admitted to surgical ward-1 of the hospital. The other injured, shifted to other wards, were in stable condition.

Relatives demanded better medical treatment and some compensation for the deceased and injured, saying they were poor people.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2018