17 Dies, 41 Sustain Injuries In Pakistan Truck Crash

At least 17 religious pilgrims lost their lives while 41 others sustained injuries in a crash as they travelled to a shrine in southwestern Pakistan, officials announced on Thursday.

The crash occurred around 10 pm (1700 GMT) on Wednesday night in the Hub district of Balochistan province, district deputy commissioner Munir Ahmed told AFP, confirming the toll.

“The truck was overspeeding and it went out of the driver’s control while negotiating a turn” and fell into a ravine in a mountainous town as they approached the shrine, he said.

“The travelers were en route to a prayer site during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which is currently underway” he added.

“The driver jumped out of the truck and remains safe,” he said.

Shaukat Jalbani, the deputy medical superintendent of Hub’s main hospital, also confirmed 17 people had been killed and made it known that most of the injured had been sent to nearby Karachi for treatment.

Early Thursday, an AFP photographer in the southern city saw workers unloading the shrouded bodies of those killed into a morgue.

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

In January 2023, 41 people were killed when their passenger bus, which was also loaded with containers of flammable oil, plunged into a ravine in Balochistan province and burst into flames.