By Behram Baloch | Saleem Shahid

Copyright dawn

GWADAR/QUETTA: Twelve people were killed and 42 others, including women and children, injured in three separate road accidents in Panjgur, Pishin and Lasbela districts of Balochistan on Saturday.

Officials said the first incident occurred in Panjgur when a passenger coach caught fire after colliding with a mini-truck carrying Iranian-smuggled petrol on the CPEC highway, about 14km from Panjgur town.

“The passenger coach coming from Karachi was on its way to Panjgur. When it reached the Zamzama Hotel area, it was hit by a Zambad mini-truck coming from the opposite direction,” a senior levies officer told Dawn. The collision caused both the coach and the petrol-laden truck to catch fire, engulfing the vehicles in flames.

Fire tenders were dispatched from Panjgur but by the time they arrived, the blaze had consumed the vehicles. “Six passengers travelling in the coach and two others in the mini-truck could not be rescued and were burnt to death,” an official of the district administration said, adding that two other people sustained burn injuries. One of them was a passer-by who caught fire when the vehicles collided.

Rescue and levies teams rushed to the scene, but it took nearly four hours to extinguish the fire. The bodies were retrieved from the wreckage and shifted, along with the two injured, to the Government Teaching Hospital in Panjgur. The injured were later moved to Karachi.

The deceased passengers of the coach, all residents of Khuzdar district, were identified as Jamil Ahmed, Inayatullah, Adeel, Alam, Salman and Amir. The two deceased in the mini-truck were identified as Abdul Razzaq and Fahad.

In another accident, four people were killed and 25 others injured, including women and children, when a Quetta-bound passenger coach coming from Islamabad overturned near the Khanozai area in Pishin district due to speeding.

Assistant Commissioner Karizat said the accident occurred when the coach lost control and overturned. Rescue teams of the Levies force rushed to the site, recovered the bodies and the injured, and shifted them to a nearby health facility.

“We have received four bodies and 25 injured in the hospital,” a hospital official said, adding that the condition of five injured was critical. They were referred to the Civil Hospital in Quetta as they had suffered multiple serious injuries.

In a separate incident on the Makran Coastal Highway near Lyari, more than 15 Hindu pilgrims travelling from Karachi to Hinglaj Nani Mandir were injured when their coach overturned due to speeding.

Women and children were among the injured. They were initially treated at the District Headquarters Hospital in Uthal, while the critically injured were later shifted to Karachi.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2025