Bahawalpur oil tanker victims to be buried in mass grave

This Eid was very somber owing to the tragedy which took place in Bahawalpur when an oil tanker caught fire, killing more than 150 people.

According to the latest details, a mass grave is being dug by the villagers with a capacity to accommodate 200 bodies for the victims of the tragedy. The grave is located in Ramzan Joya village, from where most of the victims belong, and their combined funeral prayers will be held at 5:30 pm today, at a cotton factory located near the grave site.

The villagers complained that the government provided no help in the digging of the grave and they had to do it on their own with limited supplies.

Earlier in the day, Bahawal Victoria Hospital emergency services director Amir Bukhari told reporters that so far 24 bodies have been identified and handed over to their families.

He added that a total of 126 bodies are still placed in the hospital’s mortuary pending identification. “The DNA samples of the remaining bodies have been taken to help in their identification. This process could take 9-10 days,” he said.

The terrible tragedy took place on Sunday when an oil tanker crashed near Bahawalpur on the main highway and spill thousands of liters of oil. Sensing an opportunity to get their hands on free fuel, people from nearby village rushed to the crash site with buckets and bottles to collect the fuel.

When the place was swarming with people, someone accidentally threw a lit cigarette and the entire place went down in flames within minutes, burning to death most of the people who were there.

Around 126 people died on the spot while 31 others died over a period of two days while getting treatment at hospitals.

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Posted by fatimaarshad on Jun 27 2017. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.