HYDERABAD: As many as 20 members of a family, among them eight women and six girls, died and 13 others suffered injuries on Thursday night when their van crashed through barriers on Indus highway near Sehwan and into a half-repaired cut filled with floodwater which had been made on the highway to allow floodwaters to flow into Indus river.

Jamshoro Deputy Commissioner Fariduddin Mustafa confirmed that 20 bodies had been recovered from the van. “Thirteen persons are injured, two of them critical,” he said and added that condition of 11 was stated to be out of danger.

Head of Syed Abdullah Shah Institute of Medical Sciences Dr Moin Siddiqui told Dawn over phone that 20 bodies had been shifted to the institute.

He said the dead included eight women, six girls and six boys. Their identity could not be ascertained at the moment “but they are all from one and the same family hailing from Khairpur Mirs,” he said, adding the ill-fated van’s driver was also related to the family.

According to the DC, the van was coming from Khairpur Mirs. “They all belong to the same family and they were coming to Sehwan to pay respect to Qalandar Lal Shahaz,” he said.

He said that the van driver failed to notice the barriers placed across the highway near Sehwan to stop motorists from driving into the half-restored breach which was filled with floodwater. The other side of the highway had been restored, he said.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2022