GUJAR KHAN/GUJRAT: At least 13 people, including women and children, were killed when a passenger van collided with a car in Sohawa, a town in the Jhelum district, on Sunday.

The accident occurred on the GT Road when a car carrying four students from Sohawa collided with a van travelling in the opposite direction. According to police, Haris Waheed, Ummar Zahid, Aqeel Ahmed and Mohsin were travelling to Gujar Khan.

Police said three of the four passengers of the ill-fated car, as well as the van driver, were among the deceased.

The driver lost control of the vehicle as they approached the Pind Matte Khan village and the car veered onto the opposite track of the dual carriageway and collided with the Gujrat-bound passenger van.

Jhelum police spokesperson Chaudhary Ulfat told Dawn that the four had rented the car, which went out of control after a tyre burst, causing it to flip over onto the other side of the carriageway.

Those killed include eight men, four women and a child, while nine people were critically injured.

Emergency crews shifted the dead and the injured to the nearby Tehsil Headquarters Hospital (THQ) in Sohawa. Eight of the deceased had been identified by the filing of this report; three of them were residents of Sohawa, four belonged to Gujrat and one hailed from Mardan.

At least four critically injured people were referred to hospitals in Rawalpindi.

Sub-Inspector Mohammad Wajid told Dawn that 15 injured van passengers, including three children, had been shifted to Pims, while the other injured had been taken to DHQ Rawalpindi, THQ Gujar Khan and THQ Sohawa.

DIG Motorways and Highway Police (North) Abbas Ahsan has ordered an inquiry into the accident.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2017