BAHAWALPUR, Jan 16: Twelve people, including four women, were killed and 23 injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a trailer near Noor Wahi Jan Mohammed Adda, some 30km from here, on the Bahawalpur-Ahmedpur section of the National Highway on Sunday morning.

Drivers of both the vehicles are among the dead. Police attributed the accident to speeding and said that the bus was coming from Karachi and was mostly carrying labourers from the Jalalpur Peerwala area in Multan. They were returning to their homes to celebrate Eidul Azha.

Nine people, including the bus driver, Nazar Husain, were killed on the spot while three other died at the tehsil headquarters hospital in Ahmedpur East. The injured were initially taken to Ahmedpur East but were shifted to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital.

The dead were identified as Riaz Hussain and Mohammad Aslam, Ms Samina, wife of Misri, and Ms Samina, wife of Nadir, of Jalalpur Peerwala, Noor Mohammad Boota of Musafirkhana in Bahawalpur and drivers Habib Ali and Nazar Hussain, Ms Anwar Mai of Khanpur.

The injured were identified as: Saeed Ahmed, Fayyaz Hussain, Haji Allah Ditta, Mazhar Hussain, Rab Nawaz, Liaquat Ali, Shahid Hussain, Mohammad Fazal, Ghulam Hussain, Allah Ditta, Khurshid Bibi, Nadir Hussain of Jalalpur Peerwala in Lodhran district, Mohammad Saeed and Mohammad Shakir of Faisalabad, Salim of Khanpur Kathora, Wali Mohammad of Bahawalpur, Abdul Jabbar Sheikhupura, Abdul Khaliq of Channigoth; Khalid Mahmood, brother of deceased trawler driver, Habib, of Kharian, Imran of Multan; Ali Asghar of Badin, Munir Ahmed of Mauza Sahi Maniari, Asghar and Abdul Ghaffar.

Accidents occur frequently on the Ahmedpur East Road because of the dualization work as only a single track is open for traffic.