SUKKUR: Five passengers, among them three children and two women, were killed and 22 were injured when two coaches collided with each other due to fog and rain and reckless driving by the driver of one bus at Shah Hussain bypass in Khairpur district on Sunday.

Eyewitnesses said that one coach was trying to overtake the other when it hit the bus. Rescue teams of highway police officials and local people retrieved dead bodies and the injured from the ill-fated vehicles and moved them to Khairpur Civil Hospital.

Dr Mukhtiar Lakho said that four dead bodies out of the five victims had been identified as Mohammad Faizan, 6, son of Muhammad Sharif; Mohammad Umar, 2, Mehreen, 10, and Ms Rani wife of Maula Bushkh. The fifth body had not been identified yet, he said.

Of the 22 wounded passengers brought to the hospital, five had been shifted to the ICU due to their precarious condition, and others were provided emergency treatment, he said.

He said that some of the injured were identified as Ghulam Sakina, Ms Tanveer Bibi, Ms Shehnaz, Ms Shazia, Mohammad Naeem, Mohammad Waseem, Adil Bhatti, Allah Bachayo, Yusuf, Adnan, Bano Begum, Hadisa Khatoon, Mohammad Irfan, Nadeem Rajput and Mohammad Faheem.

He said the bodies would be handed over to heirs as soon as they reached the hospital. Both the buses were on their way from Karachi to Punjab.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2023