RAWALPINDI, Pakistan: At least 36 people were killed in two separate bus accidents in Pakistan on Sunday, including 12 pilgrims who had been trying to reach Iran, rescue and police officials said. All 24 people on board a bus were killed when it plunged into a ravine near the town of Azad Pattan on the border between Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. "I have lost three members of my family," Tara Zafar, who travelled to the hospital after hearing about the accident, told AFP. Her father, sister and one-year-old nephew were among the dead. "I hoped that at least one of them had survived. It's doomsday for my family."

Umar Farooq, a senior government official from Sudhanoti district, where the bus started its journey, told AFP at the crash site "24 were travelling in the bus and all 24 have died". Around 20 villagers helped to retrieve bodies before officials arrived. "We carried the bodies out of the ravine wrapped in shawls and scarves," Manazir Hussain, a 44 year old retired army soldier told AFP.

In a separate incident, 12 men died when their bus crashed into a ravine on the Makran Coastal Highway in Balochistan, after being prevented from crossing into Iran. An army crane helped to remove the bus from the ravine and no further bodies or wounded people were found. "This is a particularly treacherous tract of road, with many twists and turns. The driver was speeding and the bus fell into a deep ravine," police official Aslam Bangulzai, who was at the scene, told AFP.

The accident occurred in a mountainous area, around 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the nearest town of Uthal and 500 kilometers from the Iran border town of Pishin. "The bus was carrying pilgrims on its way to Arbaeen (pilgrimage) but was turned back at the Iran border because their documents had some problems," said Hamood Ur Rehman, a senior government official in the nearby district of Gwadar.

Road accidents with high fatalities are common in Pakistan, where safety measures are lax, driver training is poor and transport infrastructure often decrepit. On Saturday, the bodies of 28 pilgrims who died in a bus crash in Iran were returned to Pakistan. The bus was carrying 51 Pakistani pilgrims who were passing through Iran to attend the Arbaeen commemoration in Iraq, one of the biggest events of the Shiite calendar, when it overturned and caught fire in front of a checkpoint in Yazd province on Tuesday night, Iranian state TV reported. — AFP