MAKKAH, 22 December 2005 — A Pakistani Haj pilgrim has died and 40 others were injured in a road accident on Madinah-Makkah Expressway on Tuesday, sources said.
Twenty of the injured were discharged after being provided medical treatment while the other pilgrims were admitted to various hospitals in Makkah with serious injuries.
Senior medical officer Dr. Aga Ashfaq , of Pakistan Medical Mission, in Makkah, told Arab News that the bus No. 506 of Al-Jazira company with 41 pilgrims was on its way back from Madinah to Makkah when it crashed into a parked trawler near Asfan, 55km from Makkah, at 8 a.m.
Asif Iqbal s/o Ghulam Muhammad, Passport No. 429861-2, a resident of Karachi East, succumbed to his injuries. Another pilgrim, Shahbaz Ahmed s/o Muhammad Ashraf Passport No. 12811-3 also from Karachi, is reported to be in critical condition and has been shifted to ICU for observation, said Dr. Aga. The injured pilgrims were staying at building Nos. 3113 and 3112 that are registered with Maktab No. 78 and 67.
This was the second such accident on the same route that involved Pakistani pilgrims a week earlier, in which one pilgrim was killed and many others were injured. They were from Gilgit, Islamabad and Rawalpindi and were residing in building No. 8213 Maktab No. 12.
