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LANDI KOTAL, Aug 27: Nine people were killed, two of them Pakistanis, in a head-on collision between a flying coach and a trailer near Dakka village on Torkham-Jalalabad road across the border on Sunday.
The witnesses said that four bodies were shifted to the agency headquarters hospital in Landi Kotal, while the bodies of five victims, who belonged to the villages near Jalalabad, were taken by the locals.
The bodies shifted to Landi Kotal were identified as coach driver Awas Khan, resident of Shalman, Landi Kotal, and Misal Khan, resident of Mardan. The other two bodies were identified as Mohammad Shafiq, resident of Paktia province and Ghani, resident of Karabagh, Kabul.
Names of the other five Afghan victims could not be ascertained.
The witnesses said that the flying coach was going from Torkham to Jalalabad when it collided with the trailer near Dakka village, killing nine people on the spot.
The witnesses said that the trailer driver escaped from the area soon after the accident.
SHUTTER-DOWN STRIKE: Tribesmen in the Landi Kotal bazar observed a complete shutter-down strike to protest against the disconnection of power supply to the area.
Witnesses said that the entire Landi Kotal bazar remained closed and the shopkeepers and tribesmen came out on the road to protest the disconnection of power supply.
Earlier, shopkeeprs stripped their power metres from their premises and torched them.
Sources said that the electricity supply to Landi Kotal bazar had been disconnected two days back on charges that the tribesmen had failed to pay utility bills.
The power meters have been installed in Landi Kotal bazar and people had been asked to pay Rs125 as monthly bill. But, the sources said, shopkeepers and other tribesmen had not paid the bills, prompting the authorities to disconnect power supply .
The strike was ended after the local administration restored the power supply.
