BALOCHISTAN – At least 34 people have been killed in two separate bus accidents in northeast and southwest Pakistan, according to local authorities. Twelve people died on the Makran Coastal Highway in the southwest province of Balochistan, the Ministry of Interior said on Sunday, while a rescue official said 22 people were killed when a bus plunged into a deep ravine near Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The first accident occurred overnight, when a bus carrying Shia pilgrims returning from Iran for a religious commemoration veered off the road. Thirteen people were also injured and were reported to be in critical condition, the provincial government said. Four people remained trapped inside the coach, and a crane was ordered to evacuate them, local police authorities said, according to Pakistani news outlet Dawn.

The second accident took place in the Kahuta district in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province. Rescue coordinator Rawalpindi Muhammad Usman told the Reuters news agency that that bus was carrying 25 passengers, including six women and a child. Among these passengers, 22 had died and one was critically injured. All of the bodies from the crash have been recovered from the ravine, he said.

The Interior Ministry, however, said 29 had died in that crash. “The accident was caused due to the coaster’s failed brakes,” rescue official Usman Gujjar told Dawn. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi expressed his “heartfelt condolences and sympathy to the families of the deceased in both accidents”. Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also issued separate statements expressing their sorrow.

Earlier this week, a bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims flipped over in central Iran, killing 28 passengers and injuring another 23 people. The passengers were Pakistani pilgrims heading to Iraq for the Arbaeen commemoration, one of the biggest events of the year for Shia Muslims globally. Thousands of Shia Muslims travel to Iraq’s holy city of Karbala to commemorate the occasion, marking the end of the annual 40-day mourning period after the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein, a central figure in the sect of Islam. Each year, 9,000 incidents are reported on average, leading to more than 5,000 deaths. (Al Jazeera)…[+]