Road accident injures 24 in Northern Afghanistan

Kabul, Aug 22 (IANS) At least 24 commuters were injured as a passenger bus collided with a truck in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province on Thursday night, provincial police spokesman Mawlawi Shir Ahmad Burhani said Friday.

The mishap took place on a road linking the capital city of Kabul to the northern Mazar-i-Sharif city, leaving 24 travellers injured, some in critical condition, the official added, saying all the injured had been shifted to a hospital in the provincial capital, Pul-e-Khumri city, Xinhua News Agency reported.

This is the second incident of its kind over the past couple of days. A previous accident occurred in the western city of Herat on Tuesday night, which killed 79 people.

Earlier this week, at least 64 commuters have been killed and three others sustained injuries in a deadly road mishap in western Afghanistan's Herat province, head of the rescue department in the province, Abdul Zahir Noorzai, said Wednesday.

The accident took place on Tuesday night after a passenger bus collided with a motorbike and a mini-truck on a road linking the neighbouring Iran to Herat city in Afghanistan.

The majority of the victims, including women and children, were Afghan refugees who returned from Iran to settle in their homeland, Afghanistan, according to the official.

In the meantime, another official, on the condition of anonymity, said that the passenger bus caught fire and many bodies could not be recognised.

The number of the victims, according to the official, could go up as the collection of information continues.

In a similar incident on July 31, one person was killed and 14 others injured after their vehicle veered off the road and turned turtle in central Afghanistan's Bamiyan province, the state-owned Bakhtar News Agency reported.

The mishap occurred in the Kotal Bukak area of Yakawlang district, where a mini-bus overturned due to a technical fault, killing one traveller on the spot and injuring 14 others, including women and children, Bakhtar quoted Mohammad Khawani Rasa, provincial police spokesman, as saying.

According to Rasa, all the injured were transported to nearby health centres for treatment.

--IANS

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