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Pakistan marks grim Idd-ul-Fitr after oil tanker inferno kills 153
Pakistani burn victims are treated at a hospital in Bahawalpur on June 25, 2017, after oil tanker after caught fire following an accident on a highway near the town of Ahmedpur East, some 670 kilometres from Islamabad. PHOTO | SS MIRZA | AFP
What you need to know:
- The accident quickly drew scores of people from a nearby village, many armed with whatever containers they could carry to scavenge the spilled fuel despite warnings from the driver, who survived the crash and was later taken into custody, and motorway police, to stay away.
- The accident came after at least 69 people were killed in a series of militant attacks across Pakistan on Friday, compounding the country's sense of grief as Ramadhan, Islam's holiest month, came to a close.
Pakistan began Idd-ul-Fitr in mourning on Monday as the death toll in an oil tanker explosion rose to 153, with scores injured after they were caught in a fireball while scooping up spilled fuel.
Dozens of relatives were waiting outside hospitals in Bahawalpur, the nearest major city, to claim the bodies of their loved ones as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived early Monday to visit victims after cutting short a visit to London.
