Pakistan: At least 16 people killed, 45 others injured in two accidents

Islamabad [Pakistan], February 16 (ANI): At least 16 passengers were killed and 45 others were injured on Saturday in two accidents involving vehicles heading to Sehwan city of Pakistan's Sindh ahead of the urs of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Dawn reported.
As many as five people were killed and 10 others injured when the van they were onboard collided with a trailer near Qazi Ahmed town of Sindh's Shaheed Benazirabad District. In another incident, 11 passengers from the Burewala area of Pakistan's Punjab were killed, and 35 others were injured in an accident that occurred near Ranipur in Khairpur district.
Qazi Ahmed Station House Officer (SHO) Waseem Mirza has confirmed the death toll and added that the accident occurred on Amri Road near Qazi Ahmed. Mirza said the van carrying devotees was heading to Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's shrine in Jamshoro district's Sehwan city, according to a Dawn report.
The police official said, "The speedy van initially hit a donkey cart, followed by a major collision with a trailer coming from the opposite side." According to Mirza, rescue teams and police initially reached the spot and took two bodies and the injured people to Qazi Ahmed Taluka Hospital.
Waseem Mirza said some critically injured people were referred to the Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women in Nawabshah, where three were pronounced dead on arrival.
Khairpur Deputy Commissioner Ahmed Fawad Shah said a local bus travelling from Burewala collided with a rickshaw that was crossing the National Highway near Ranipur. According to Shah, the driver probably tried to save the rickshaw.
Ahmed Fawad Shah said that 11 passengers were killed and 35 others were injured in the accident. It is not clear if the people who were sitting in the rickshaw were among the casualties. The dead and the injured people were taken to three different health facilities for treatment, including Rural Health Centre (RHC) Hingorja and Ranipur, besides Gambat Institute of Medical and Sciences (GIMS) Khairpur.
SSP Khairpur Tauheed Memon said the bus overturned after colliding with the rickshaw. He said, "All dead and injured come from Burewala and were travelling to Sehwan to attend Qalandar's urs." He stated that legal formalities are being complete,d and then the injured and people who died in the incident will be taken to Burewale, Vehari.
Memon said that the senior superintendent of police and Vehari deputy commissioner were in contact with the Khairpur police and administration. SSP Khairpur said that he had visited the site of the incident to oversee the rescue operation. He said that injured and people who died in the accident were being identified in hospital for legal formalities, Dawn reported.
Road accidents on highways in Pakistan occur frequently, and the main causes are speeding, hazardous overtaking, and disregard for traffic rules.
Earlier on Friday, five people travelling in a car died while six others in a sports utility vehicle (SUV) were injured when the SUV travelling from the wrong side of the Indus Highway rammed into the car near Jamshoro's Sann town.
On January 22, at least one person was dead and 22 others were injured after a bus heading to Karachi collided with a stationary trailer near Nooriabad on the M-9 Karachi-Hyderabad motorway. Two youths and a child were killed when two motorcycles were hit by speeding vehicles on the Indus Highway in Jamshoro on January 13, as per the Dawn report.
On January 9, four people, including a newly-wed man and his mother, were killed, and six others were injured when two cars collided near Dhabeji on the Karachi-Thatta section of the National Highway. (ANI)