JEDDAH : At least seven Pakistani Umrah pilgrims were killed and 13 others sustained injuries in collision between two vehicles in Saudi Arabia. According to reports, the accident took place in Al-Hijrah at Makkah-Madina Highway some 100km away from Madina Munawrah where a bus carrying Umrah pilgrims hailing from Pakistan, Egypt and Syria collided head-on with a truck. As a result several including seven Pakistani nationals were killed while 13 were injured. Tahseen-ul-Haque, the welfare officer at the Pakistan Consulate said that two of the dead pilgrims yet identified included Muhammad Hassan and Manahel Fatima.
The names of the other pilgrims have not been released. He said that injured Pakistani pilgrims including Liaquat Ali, Shanaz Begum, Muhammad Haneef, Naila Riyaz and Nusrat Begum are in King Fahad Hospital, Naseem Begum is in the Saudi-German Hospital while Aneeda Riyaz, Atta Muhammad and Kaneez Fatima are in the Miqat Hospital. Tahseen-ul-Haque said that the Pakistanis discharged from various hospitals including Munir Bibi, Muhammad Nawaz and Nazir Ahmed are now at Pakistan House in Madina.