DADU: A state of mourning prevailed in the urban and rural areas of Dadu and Johi talukas on Saturday as 23 victims of a road accident in Khuzdar (Balochistan) were buried in their respective ancestral graveyards.

The deceased, along with many others, were travelling by a bus that hurtled into a ditch near the Kaka Heer locality of Wadh taluka of Khuzdar district, survivors said. Around 60 co-travellers were injured, some of them seriously, in the accident. They were returning home after attending the urs of Pir Abdul Qadir Naqshbandi at his shrine in Wadh.

Almost all business, commercial and trade activities in the two talukas remained suspended as markets, bazaars and shops remained closed for a second day, Saturday.

Local leaderships of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) have announced a three-day suspension of all political activities in the areas.

MNA Rafique Jamali and MPA Pir Mujeebul Haq of PPP and PTI’s Liaquat Jatoi and district president Sardar Ashiq Zaunr, made such announcements. The PPP leaders also deferred the party’s protest against alleged theft of Sindh’s water by Punjab which was scheduled for Sunday (June 13) in Dadu.

Leaders and senior activists of various political, religious and nationalist parties, visited the bereaved families in different towns and villages on Saturday to offer their condolences and also the injured persons to inquire about their health.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2021