At least 12 passengers were killed and about 22 others were injured when a minibus and a passenger coach collided head-on near Zero Point in Uthal, on the Quetta-Karachi Highway in Balochistan, police said on Friday. The Uthal bus accident happened as the coach was travelling from Gwadar to Karachi and the minibus was heading from Bela to Karachi.
Casualties and rescue work
Police said seven passengers died at the scene and five others died later in hospital, which brings the reported toll to at least 12. Abdul Hakeem Lasi, in-charge of the Edhi Centre in Bela, said Edhi workers moved around 22 injured passengers to hospital before they were taken on to Karachi for treatment. He said seven of the injured were in serious condition and that most of the casualties were in the minibus.
Location and cause
The crash is placed near Zero Point in Uthal, but the official account also says the incident took place near Bela, when the coach hit the minibus. The exact spot is therefore described in two ways, and the officials have not reconciled them in the account given. No cause has been officially stated. Officials described the crash as a head-on collision in which the passenger coach struck the minibus.
Earlier crashes on nearby roads
Two days earlier, on Wednesday, a passenger bus overturned after hitting a road divider in Rajanpur district's Rojhan tehsil on the Indus Highway in Punjab, killing 10 people and injuring 44. A similar head-on collision between a passenger coach and an LPG bowser near Kharkhera Customs in Winder, Balochistan, left two people dead and 15 injured. Earlier this year, five people, including a local journalist, died in two road accidents in Winder and Khuzdar districts in February, and four people died in a crash near Wadh in Khuzdar district in January.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Friday ko Balochistan ke Uthal mein Quetta-Karachi highway par Zero Point ke qareeb ek minibus aur passenger coach aamne samne takra gaye. Police ke mutabiq kam az kam 12 musafir halak aur taqreeban 22 zakhmi hue hain, jin mein se saat ki halat serious hai. Jin logon ke rishtedar is raaste par safar karte hain, unhein taaza malumat official zaraye se dekhni chahiye. Sarak par safar karne walon ko ehtiyat karni chahiye.
