Two bus crashes in Pakistan leave at least 36 people dead, officials say

Two separate bus crashes hours apart in Pakistan on Sunday left at least 36 people dead and dozens more injured, officials said.

The first happened when a bus carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims returning from Iraq through Iran fell from a highway into a ravine in southwest Pakistan, killing at least 12 people and injuring 32 others, police and officials said. The driver lost control on the Makran coastal highway when the brakes failed, while passing through Lasbela district in Balochistan province, local police chief Qazi Sabir said.

Authorities in Balochistan said that arrangements were being made to send the bodies of the pilgrims to Punjab province for burial. Maryam Nawaz, the chief minister in Punjab, expressed her condolences after the crash.

Hours later, 24 people were killed when a bus fell into a ravine in the Kahuta district of the eastern Punjab province, police and officials said, including two women and a child. Omar Farooq, a senior government official in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, said there were no survivors.

Initially, local police said that there were seven injured, but later doctors and government officials said that everyone on board the bus died in the crash. Raja Moazzam, a rescue official, said most of the bodies had been identified.

According to residents, the bus crash happened early on Sunday and locals initially took part in the rescue work, and ambulances of emergency service crews arrived later.

The bus was heading to the Pakistan-administrated disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir – claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan – when it fell from the Panna bridge in the Kahuta district, said Sardar Waheed, a senior government official, adding that heavy machinery was used to lift the