Abbottabad: A bus carrying Pakistani soldiers slid off a mountainous road and fell into a deep ravine in the country’s northwest on Saturday, killing 24 and injuring five others, officials said.
Senior government official Aqil Badshah said the bus was going from the garrison city of Rawalpindi to the northern town of Gilgit when the accident happened in the Kohistan district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
He said the dead and injured were taken to a nearby hospital and authorities were making arrangements to transport the bodies to Rawalpindi city near the capital Islamabad.
In a statement, the military said the dead and injured soldiers were originally from Gilgit and were on leave, travelling there from their base in the valley of Swat.
On Wednesday. at least 10 people were killed while 27 others were injured in separate road accidents in the country.
On the Supper Highway in Karachi, four passengers, including three women, died while 20 people were injured when a bus overturned causing heavy traffic chaos.
On the same day, three members of a family were killed and eight others were injured when their van overturned near Mian Channu, traffic officials said. Those who died in the incident were identified as Barkat Ali and Mohammad Waqas.
Elsewhere, three students died when a truck hit their motorcycle in Jhelum.
Road accidents are common in Pakistan because of poor infrastructure and routine disregard of traffic laws.
On February 23, a bus carrying a wedding party plunged into a canal in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 17 people.
Most of the dead were women and children, with authorities at the time blaming the driver’s negligence for the incident.
