SHIKARPUR, June 30: A coach driver was killed and 30 passengers were injured when highwaymen opened fire on the coach which overturned on the Indus Highway near Kalarkot village in the jurisdiction of the Naparkot police on Monday.

A group of bandits signalled two Karachi-bound coaches coming from Punjab to stop. The dacoits opened fire on the coaches when drivers did not stop the vehicles.

As a result of firing, the driver of the first coach, Abdul Hadi Panhwar, died on the spot and the coach overturned, injuring 30 passengers, including Shahbaz Rangers sub-inspector Arshad, four women and three children.

Sources said that driver Abdul Hakeem of the other coach following the first coach was also hit by bullets. He was taken to a Larkana hospital where he died. However, police did not confirm it.

The bandits also opened fire on a police van, injuring driver Khadim Hussain Khoso of the Karampur police station. Three other policemen — Aijaz Ahmed Bajkani, Azad Ali and Ali Nawaz — were wounded when the van went out of the control of injured driver and overturned.

The injured policemen were taken to a nearby hospital from where Khoso was referred to a Larkana hospital.

Later, passengers and transporters blocked the highway for three hours in protest against the incident. The highway was reopened for vehicular traffic on the intervention of the police.

On Sunday night, bandits opened fire on a car as its driver did not stop it on their signal on Shikarpur-Sukkur road in the Lakhi Ghulam Shah area soon after the killing Lakhi DSP Meher Ali Langah in an encounter with highwaymen on Lakhi-Naudero road.

As a result two passengers, Pehalwan and Abdul Hakeem, were injured when and the car was damaged.

According to taxi driver Nazeer Ahmed Channa, the injured accompanied by their friends Khadim Hussain Channa and Nazeer Ahmed, who remained unhurt, were going to Karampur from Sukkur.

Those injured were admitted to Civil Hospital Shikarpur. No FIR was registered till the filing of this report.