TAXILA: Three passengers died and eight others were injured when the van they were travelling in fell into a ditch and caught fire in the jurisdiction of Jand police station.

The driver of the van lost control of the vehicle when it reached the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) plant, due to speeding. Later, locals rushed to the spot, extinguished the fire and retrieved the injured and shifted them to Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) Hospital. The accident took place in a remote area.

Aamir Nawaz, spokesman for Rescue 1122, told Dawn that three ambulances took part in the rescue operation and shifted the injured to hospitals of Jand, Attock and Rawalpindi. He said rescue officials retrieved three bodies from the passenger van and shifted them to a local hospital. Hospital sources said one of the deceased was beyond recognition while two others were identified as Ajab Sher and Ajab Awal Khan.

The injured were identified as Sikandar, Asif, Zubair, Shumail Tariq, Ameer Abdullah, Mohammad Deen, Shahfeeq and Khayal Bibi.

“We were heading towards Kalabagh when the driver who was driving the vehicle lost control while taking a turn and resultantly, the vehicle fell into a ditch and caught fire,” 20-year-old Shumail told journalists at THQ hospital.

“There were screams and cries everywhere and I somehow managed to come out of the burning van,” he added.

Another injured passenger, 30-year-old Shahfeeq said it seemed the brakes of the vehicle failed and after which it fell into the ditch while taking a sharp turn.

Nasarullah, an employee of the oil and gas plant, said he was heading towards his place of duty on his motorcycle and when he reached the place of the incident, he found the vehicle on fire. The trapped passengers were calling for help.

Meanwhile, three people were injured when a passenger van crashed into a Suzuki pick-up at the under-construction China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) route at Dhoke Saur near Kharrapa interchange in the jurisdiction of Pindigheb police station. The injured were identified as Shakeel, Hamza and Riaz.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2021