At least 24 persons were killed in two road accidents in Pannu Aqil (Sukkur) and Narang Mandi (Lahore).They all belonged to Punjab province. At least 13 people were killed when a passenger van and a bus collided and caught fire in Pakistan’s central Punjab province on Monday, police said.
The vehicles were consumed by flames when a gas cylinder fitted in one of the vehicles exploded in the accident in Narang Mandi city, north of Lahore.
“Those killed included seven members of one family,” police spokesman Manzoor Hussain told media.
“Four were burnt so badly that they could not be identified,” he added.
A police report said the van was carrying members of a wedding party.
It blamed the bus driver for speeding, while a rescue official said fog was also a reason for the crash.
Sixteen people were taken to hospital, most of them in a critical condition.
Pakistan has an appalling record of fatal traffic accidents due to poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.
Eleven persons, including women and children of same family, were killed in a road accident in Pano Aqil taluka of Sukkur district on Sunday night.They were going to attend a marriage ceremony in Karachi in their own truck
According to sources, an open truck loaded with marble and also carrying more than 12 people overturned near an area called Sanghi.
With the passengers falling on the metalled road and the bricks on top of them, 11 of them died on the spot, four of them women and seven children. The truck driver and his mechanic were injured.Soon afterwards, ambulances from the nearby Edhi Centre reached the accident site and moved the bodies and the injured to a hospital in Pano Aqil.
The sources told Dawn that the passengers in the truck were on their way to Karachi from Sadiqabad to attend a wedding. Some of them said the accident took place when the truck driver attempted to overtake a tractor-trolley carrying sugar cane and lost control of the vehicle, which then fell into a ditch.
Those killed were Rizwan, Tahira, Noor, Fatima, Abdul Hannan, Irum, Rehman, Laiba, Rubina, Tuba and Farzana. Sajid, Yaqoob and Asif were seriously injured.
