RAHIM YAR KHAN - At least 13 persons were killed and several others were injured in the pileup involving three vehicles in Rahim Yar Khan in the wee hours of Saturday, police and rescue workers said.
According to police sources the accident occurred at the Motorway M5 near Rukanpur area of Rahim Yar Khan where a van overturned after tyre-burst while a bus and a jeep coming from behind collided with it. As a result, 12 persons died on the spot. Police and rescue teams reached the spot and shifted the dead and injured to Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan.
Local residents said a small passenger van (AEN-772) was going towards Karachi. When the van reached near Thul Hassan area of Muhammad Pur one of its tyre exploded, all of a sudden and it overturned. Meanwhile, a bus of devotees coming from Multan stopped there and many of its passengers came out from the bus to help the victims. When the passengers were busy in rescuing the injured an official land cruiser of Customs Department GP-4370 ran over these passengers and overturned. Those who died were later identified by police as Bhola 45,Fazal Elahi 30, Abu Sufyan 4, Noor Khan 40, Ayub, 40, Mulazim 50, Asad 27, Shoaib 45, Mubarak Shah 45, Ashraf 30,Karam Hussain 50, Muzzamal 45 and Shaaman Khan 50. Hospital officials said 13 bodies were shifted to their native towns on Saturday morning. A source in National Highway and Motorway Police (NHMP) said that the vehicles collided back to back and NHMP officials were unable to place the safety cones on the road. The drivers of the other vehicles failed to notice the first accident on the same lane.
