40 dead, 8 injured as passenger bus plunges into ravine in Pakistan's Balochistan

Balochistan [Pakistan], July 3 (ANI): Highlighting the perilous state of Pakistan’s transport infrastructure, at least 40 people were killed and eight others sustained severe injuries on Friday when an overloaded passenger bus skidded off the hazardous Sherani-Zhob highway and plunged into a deep ravine in the Danasar area, The Express Tribune reported.

The ill-fated vehicle was travelling from Quetta to Islamabad when it traversed the notorious border corridor between Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, exposing a glaring absence of highway safety barriers and structural safeguards on Pakistan’s high-risk mountainous routes.

According to the Medical Emergency Response Centre (MERC), disaster response teams managed to pull out 40 bodies from the mangled wreckage, while the surviving passengers were rushed to the trauma facility in Zhob.

Underscoring the sheer magnitude of the tragedy, a large-scale emergency mobilisation saw the deployment of six ambulances, 12 emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and 10 light transport vehicles to the remote crash site, according to The Express Tribune.

The horrific accident triggered immediate chaos, forcing local administrative units from Sherani and neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to rush personnel to the scene.

Commenting on the grim situation, Sherani Deputy Commissioner Hazrat Wali Kakar stated that “the injured were being rescued and shifted to nearby hospitals, while efforts to recover and transport the bodies of those killed were continuing.”

Pointing further to the systemic operational failures and lack of regulatory oversight governing Pakistan’s commercial transit sector, the official revealed that the vehicle had been heavily overloaded midway through the journey.

The Express Tribune quoted Kakar as saying, “The coach departed Quetta carrying 36 passengers, but additional travellers boarded en route after being transferred from another bus that had broken down.”

The sudden influx of critical casualties forced authorities to abruptly declare a medical emergency at healthcare facilities across Sherani and Dera Ismail Khan, further straining a regional medical system poorly equipped to cope with massive disasters.

While a joint operation was launched by Rescue 1122, the Frontier Corps (FC), police, and district officials, the state of the local infrastructure and the difficult mountainous terrain severely complicated the recovery efforts.

As public scrutiny intensifies over persistent governance deficits and a lack of accountability regarding public safety in the country, administrative officials confirmed that an official probe had been initiated to ascertain the exact cause behind the fatal plunge, The Express Tribune reported. (ANI)

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