SUKKUR, Nov 2 Thirteen persons lost their lives and 15 others received injuries in a road accident on Monday at the National Highway near Ghotki.

Reports said that a speeding trailer banged into a passenger coach coming in the opposite direction near Channa bus stop. The coach was going to Rahim Yar Khan from Sukkur.

The dead were identified as Shabana Bibi, Zainab Arbani and her five-year-old son Abdul Qayoom, Shafaat Bibi and her two sons, five-year-old Atta Rasool and three-year-old Saeed, Maqsooda and her three-year-old daughter Khushboo, Marvi, five-year-old Rohina Arbani, four-year-old Sajid and seven-year-old Marium. The injured were Shahzad, Shahan, Anwar, six-year-old Rabail, Rifat, Mushtaq Ahmed Loond, Masood, Alam Khatoon, Mohammad Nawaz, Hajani, Shamshad Khatoon, Shahid, Bashiran, Feroze and Ikhlaq Ahmed. They were taken to the Civil Hospital of Ghotki.

The area police have impounded the two vehicles, arrested trailer driver Shahzad and cleaner Maqsood. But the bus driver fled. An emergency was declared in all the hospitals of Ghotki district and doctors were called from their homes. A large number of people reached the Civil Hospital to donate blood for injured.

Sources attribute the accident to speeding. They said one portion of road was under construction near Channa bus stop and two-way vehicular traffic was plying on single road where the trailer hit the coach.

YOUNG MAN SHOT DEAD A young man Mir Dayo was gunned down by armed persons near Pir Wah in Pano Akil on Monday. He was on way to his home, when armed persons opened fire on him as a result of which he got serious bullet injuries. He was first shifted to taluka hospital, Pano Akil and late on Sunday night was referred to civil hospital, Sukkur, where he succumbed to his injuries. Area people said that the murder was result of old enmity.

KILLED A truck driver lost his life, when his truck overturned at the National Highway near Dadlo on Monday morning.

The truck was on way to Karachi from Punjab. When it reached near Dadlo,Pano Akil, it overturned while negotiating a sharp turn as a result of which driver Bashir Pathan died on the spot. Dadlo police shifted the body to a local hospital.