Another bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims crash in Iran, 3 dead

TEHRAN: A bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims collided with a truck in southern Iran, killing at least three people and injuring 48 others, state media reported on Monday.

Pakistani pilgrims were on their way to Iraq via Iran to participate in the commemoration of Arbaeen, which marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet (PBUH).

Iran’s state news agency IRNA said a bus collided with a truck on the main road between the city of Neyriz in Fars province and Sarjan in Kerman province late Sunday, “injuring 48 and killing three”.

It did not specify how many people were on board the bus.

Colonel Abdul Hashim Dehghani, a Fars traffic police official, told IRNA that the accident was caused by a “technical fault” in the brakes and the driver’s “failure to control the vehicle”.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Mehr News Urdu quoted Neyriz Governor Yaqub Khosrawani as saying that 4 Pakistani pilgrims lost their lives and 30 were injured in the incident.

It was the second road accident involving Pakistani pilgrims in less than a week after 28 people were killed in the Iranian city of Yazd on their way to Iraq for Arbaeen.

The dead bodies of 28 pilgrims were brought to Pakistan by a special flight on Friday night.

Iran has a poor road safety record with more than 20,000 deaths in accidents in the year to March 2024, according to data from the Iranian Judiciary’s Legal Medicine Organization, cited by local media.

According to official data, a total of 22 million pilgrims participated in Arbaeen last year.

As of August 19 this year, about 25,000 Pakistani pilgrims had entered Iran to reach the Iraqi city of Karbala, where Imam Hussain and his brother Abbas are buried, IRNA said.

Condemnations pour in

In a post on X, Prime Minister (PM) Shahbaz Sharif expressed grief over the death of Pakistani pilgrims in a bus accident in Iran.