22 killed, 50 hurt in two road accidents

At least 22 people were killed and 50 others were wounded in separate road accidents in Kahuta and Gilgit, officials said on Tuesday
In the first incident, eleven people were killed when their fast-moving bus plunged into a deep ravine in the Rawalpindi’s suburban district of Kahuta Punjar on Tuesday.
According to the police, the bus was carrying at least 50 people. The relief teams, which were sent towards the mishap site, said at least 20 passengers were injured.
The ill-fated bus was en route to Kahuta from Narh village, Rawalpindi, when it went out of the driver’s control and careened off several feet down into the valley, killing six people on the spot and injuring over 20.
The injured and the deceased were shifted to Kahuta Tehsil Hospital. Six critically injured people were shifted to District Headquarters Hospital, Rawalpindi.
In another mishap, at least eleven people were killed and ten others injured in a roadside accident in the Gilgit’s area of Astore.
According to police sources, the passenger wagon was plying from Pareshag to Astore when it skidded off into the river after it went out of control owing to overloading and faulty brakes.
Passengers identified as Naik Alam s/o Musa, Javed s/o Yaqoob, Sheikh Rehmat s/o Hussain, Jamshed s/o Kamal, Pervez s/o Ibadat, Ilyas s/o of Shafa, Maqbool s/o Ilyas, and Saqib s/o Shahjehan were killed on the spot while more than 20 others sustained injuries.
The dead bodies and the injured were shifted to District Hospital Astore. In the meantime, operations remained in progress to rescue other passengers from the river.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf have expressed their grief over the loss of lives in these incidents. In separate messages, they expressed their sympathies to the victims’ families and advised the authorities to provide the best possible treatment to those who sustained injuries in the accidents.