At least 22 dead in Pakistan bus crash: rescue officials

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan: At least 22 people were killed when the bus they were travelling in plunged into a ravine in Pakistan on Sunday, rescue officials said.

The accident occurred near the town of Azad Pattan on the border between Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

“22 dead till now, including 15 men, six women and one child,” said Farooq Ahmed, a spokesman for Rescue 1122 emergency services in Punjab.

Muhammad Usman Gujjar, another spokesman for the rescue service, told AFP that “initial information suggests that a vehicle fell into a ravine”.

Road accidents with high fatalities are common in Pakistan, where safety measures are lax, driver training is poor and transport infrastructure often decrepit.

On Saturday, the bodies of 28 pilgrims who died in a bus crash in Iran were returned to Pakistan.

The bus was carrying 51 Pakistani pilgrims to Iraq for the Arbaeen commemoration, one of the biggest events of the Shiite calendar, when it overturned and caught fire in front of a checkpoint in Yazd province on Tuesday night, Iranian state TV reported.

The head of Iran’s traffic police, Teymour Hosseini, cited a brake failure and the steep road as the reasons for the crash.

-AFP