Toll in Nawabshah road tragedy rises to 21

NAWABSHAH: The total number of casualties in Nawabshah road mishap rose to 21 after one more student succumbed to her injuries in Karachi on Friday, Geo News reported.

The student named Sidra could not survive and succumbed to her injuries at a private hospital in Karachi, raising the toll to 21. Eight children had been shifted to Karachi for treatment out of which one lost her battle for life today.

Special prayers will be held today for the victims whose funerals were offered yesterday. Private schools will remain closed today and on Saturday to mourn the tragedy that took lives of over a dozen students.

A case was registered in Nawabshah police station against the dumper driver and his two helpers while police is still searching for the accused.

It is pertinent to mention here that 20 persons including 17 schoolchildren died when their van was crushed by a dumper on the Nawabshah-Qazi Ahmed Link Road on Wednesday.

The five adults included the van driver and two school teachers. The van with 30 students and two teachers on board had gone to Nawabshah from Daulatpur where the schoolchildren took part in a quiz contest. While on its way back to Nawabshah, the van met with the tragic accident.

The impact of the collision was so severe that it hurled the occupants of the van out of it, and when the rescue teams arrived at the scene of the accident, they found the bodies scattered all over the place. The children were from Class III to Class VIII.

President Mamnoon Hussain, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, MQM chief Altaf Hussain and the PPP patron-in-chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari expressed shock and condolences over the death of young students in the road accident in Nawabshah.