LANDI KOTAL, June 16: Three persons, including a child, were crushed to death and six others were critically injured when a loaded container fell on a passenger van at Shagai area on the main Peshawar-Torkhum highway on Saturday.

Officials at Jamrud said that three persons, Rasul Khan, Noor Rehman and an unidentified child, who were travelling in a pick-up van, were killed on the spot when an Afghanistan-bound container, loaded with juice packets and cartons, overturned and fell on the pick-up. Six more passengers of the van were critically injured. Khasadar force had to pull them out of the crushed vehicle using a crane.

The injured, identified as Hakimullah, Sher Afzal, Mohammad Ullah, Tahir Khan, Taj Wali and Wajid, were shifted to Peshawar for treatment.

Sources said that the ill-fated passenger van was coming from the Kukikhel area of Tirah and was on its way to Jamrud. They said that the dead and the injured were amongst the families who were forced to leave their houses after the Taliban took control of their houses in Tirah.

Meanwhile, Taliban made further advances into Kukikhel dominated areas of Tirah and reportedly took control of Toor Darra area of Abdalkhel.