BAHAWALPUR, Dec 29: Police deployed outside Maulana Masood Azhar, the former chief of the banned Jaish Muhammad, were withdrawn on Sunday night.

The Lahore High Court review board had ordered his release by rejecting the government’s plea for an extension of his remand on Dec 14.

His detention period had ended on Dec 17, and since then he had been under house arrest.

buried: Eleven victims, including five women and as many children, of the chain accident of two buses and a truck were buried at Dera Masti graveyard amid sobbing and tears here on Sunday.

Earlier, thousands of people, including residents of adjacent villages and Khanwar Sharif town, offered their funeral prayers on the premises of a primary school, Dera Masti, about 15 kms from here in Ahmedpur East. Moving scenes were seen when their bodies were lifted from the house of Maulvi Mushtaq Ahmed, a prayer leader of Dera Masti’s Jamia Mosque. Maulvi Mushtaq lost 12 family members in the tragic accident. The victims are Mushtaq’s wife, a son, nephews, nieces and daughters.

Those laid to rest at the local graveyard are: Rukhsana, Shah Rukh, Muhammad Raja, Rashida, Shabana (bride), Amna, Shehzad, Salman, Sadia, Haider and Shamim. The body of family’s 12th victim Amna Bibi was sent to Hyderabad.

Abid, who lost his bride in the tragedy, told Dawn that the accident occurred due to the reckless driving of the bus driver who jumped out of the running vehicle. He said both the drivers were driving at high speed to overtake each other which resulted in the collision. He said he lost his mother and his bride while his uncle Ghulam Nabi lost his four family members.

Maulvi Mushtaq and his five family members — Muhammad Yousaf and his bride Samreen, Asif, Mohsin and Yasmeen — were stated to be in stable condition at Rahim Yar Khan hospital.

Residents of Dera Masti regretted that no one from the Bahawalpur administration consoled the victims’ families or participated in the funeral. They said the house of Bahawalpur tehsil Nazim Syed Najeeb Owais was only two kilometres away from here but neither he nor any representative of the district Nazim came to condole with the families of victims.

Meanwhile, local shopkeepers kept their shops closed on Sunday to mourn the tragic incidents.

KILLED: A woman, Khursheed Bibi, was killed by a speeding car on the Circular Road near BNH here on Sunday.