On Monday, a passenger bus carrying mostly laborers to their hometown for the celebration of Eid-al-Adha collided with a container truck on a busy highway in Punjab’s Dera Ghazi Khan district, Pakistan killing over thirty people and leaving around forty people injured.
According to a senior police officer Hassan Javed, the bus had left Sialkot and was traveling on Taunsa Road, with its destination being the city of Dera Ghazi Khan. He said the actual cause of the accident is still under investigation. The rescue team transported the dead as well as the injured ones to a hospital nearby.
As per Sher Khan, the in-charge of the rescue team at the site, 33 individuals had lost their lives to the accident, including the bus driver and some of the injured were in critical condition.
He added that the passengers were heading to their home district Rajanpur to celebrate the upcoming major Muslim festival.
Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s Minister of Information and Broadcasting, informed about the accident on Twitter while appealing to the citizens to follow traffic rules as the violations can be “fatal.” He continued saying that public transport drivers are the “trustees” of the lives of people.
ڈیرہ غازیخان کے قریب ٹریفک ایکسیڈنٹ میں تیس لوگ جان کی بازی ہار گئے ہیں، کب ہم بحیثیت قوم یہ احساس کریں گے کہ ٹریفک قوانین کی خلاف ورزی جان لیوا ہے پبلک ٹرانسپورٹ کے ڈرائیورز لوگوں کی زندگیوں کے امین ہیں انھیں اور بھی احتیاط کی ضرورت ہے
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) July 19, 2021
The Chief Minister of Punjab Usman Buzdar expressed his condolences and grief for the victims of the accident and said that the injured were being provided with the best facilities by the government.
ڈیرہ غازی خان میں افسوسناک ٹریفک حادثے میں قیمتی جانوں کے ضیاع پر دلی رنج ہوا ہے۔ غم کی اس گھڑی میں ہم جاں بحق افراد کےاہلخانہ کےدکھ اور درد میں برابر کےشریک ہیں۔
زخمیوں کو بہترین علاج کی سہولیات فراہم کی جا رہی ہیں- حادثے میں غفلت کےمرتکب افراد کے خلاف سخت کارروائی کی جائےگی!
— Usman Buzdar (@UsmanAKBuzdar) July 19, 2021
