At least 32 people were killed and 16 others injured when a passenger bus overloaded with passengers disintegrated into a ravine on the mountain roads between Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The vehicle was on a northbound route from Quetta to Peshawar when the incident occurred around 08:00 local time on Monday.
Witness reports say the bus carried 48 passengers, some of whom were transferred from a second bus that had broken down earlier on the same stretch. A government official at Zhob Hospital confirmed that the accident involved a number of women and children.
The cause of the crash is still under scrutiny; however, early statements suggest a steering fault may have triggered the loss of control, causing the vehicle to skid off the shoulder of the Dana Sar mountains and fall roughly 70 to 80 feet into the ravine.
Armed with images from the scene, rescue crews described the bus as badly damaged and embedded in the slope. Emergency responders and a convoy of ambulances arrived, but the difficult terrain hampered recovery operations.
All injured passengers were transported to the District Headquarters Hospital in Zhob, about 68 kilometres from the crash site, while the deceased were later identified and then moved to their hometowns by ambulance.
The head of Zhob district’s emergency service reported that the bus fell 70 to 80 feet into the ravine and emphasized the stop of response due to the steep hillside and limited access roads.
Officials reacted strongly to the news: President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti all expressed sorrow. The Chief Minister added that an inquiry would be launched to uncover how the accident occurred.
Road fatalities are a regular tragedy in Pakistan, with issues ranging from reckless driving to bad vehicle maintenance. This crash follows a 2024 incident where a pilgrim bus fell into a ravine near Balochistan, killing 17 and injuring 40.
