GWADAR/KHUZDAR: At least 17 people, including women and children, were killed and around 41 others injured in two road accidents in Gwadar and Sikandarabad districts of Balochistan on Saturday. Three among the dead belonged to a single family.

According to Levies officials, a coach carrying 20 passengers was going from Pasni town of Gwadar district to Karachi when its driver lost control over the steering wheel and as a result the vehicle fell into a ditch.

The accident occurred near Bozi Top area on the Gwadar-Karachi coastal highway.

Sources said nine people died on the spot and two succumbed to their injuries during treatment in a hospital.

Nine injured were provided treatment in nearby health facilities where they were brought by personnel of Levies and Coast Guards.

Levies official Jalil Soomro told Dawn that the injured were later shifted to Navy Hospital Ormara.

He said brakes of the vehicle failed after which the driver lost control over it.

In Sikandarabad district, two wagons coming collided head on near Khuzdar town, leaving six people dead and 32 others injured.

Khuzdar Deputy Commissioner retired Major Mohammad Ilyas Kibzai said that one wagon was going from Karachi to Quetta and the other from Surab to Khuzdar.

He said four people, including a small girl, died on the spot and two in the hospital during treatment.

Levies and FC personnel shifted the bodies and the injured to the Teaching Hospital in Khuzdar.

Two of the dead were identified as Molvi Abdul Rasheed and Mohammad Umair.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2019