36 including pilgrims killed in separate bus accidents in Pakistan

 

Two separate bus accidents hours apart in Pakistan on Sunday left at least 35 people dead and dozens more injured, officials said, Paralel.Az reports citing CBS News.

The first happened when a bus carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims returning from Iraq through Iran fell from a highway into a ravine in southwest Pakistan, killing at least 12 people and injuring 32 others, police and officials said. The driver lost control on the Makran coastal highway when the brakes failed while passing through Lasbela district in Baluchistan province, local police chief Qazi Sabir said.

Authorities in Baluchistan said arrangements were being made to send the bodies of slain pilgrims to Punjab province for burial. Maryam Nawaz, the chief minister in Punjab, also expressed her condolences over the accident.

Hours later, 23 people were killed when a bus fell into a ravine in Kahuta district in the eastern Punjab province, police and officials said, including two women and a child. At least seven others were injured.

The bus was heading to the Pakistan-administrated disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir — claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan — when it fell from the Panna bridge in the Kahuta district, said Sardar Waheed, a senior government official, adding that heavy machinery was needed to lift the wreckage and ensure no one was trapped underneath.

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in separate statements offered their condolences and expressed sorrow over the two accidents. They asked authorities to ensure the provision of the best medical treatment for the injured pilgrims.

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