35 Pakistanis killed in road accident in Iran

35 Pakistani passengers were killed in a terrible bus accident in Iran's Yazd province. 30 of them died on the spot, while the remaining 5 died after being taken to the hospital.

There were 53 passengers in the bus. All the survivors were more or less injured. The condition of 14 of them is said to be critical.

The accident happened on Tuesday night in the city of Taft, Iran. The city of Taft is located 500 kilometers north-west of the capital Tehran. An official from the Taft branch of Iran's Disaster Response Force told the country's state news agency IRNA that the bus lost control and overturned and fell into a ditch on the side.

The country's state television in a report blamed the driver's inattention and the lack of fitness of the bus as the cause of the accident.

All the dead and injured passengers are Shia Muslims. They were going to Karbala in Iraq through Iran to join this year's 'Arbain'.

A special religious ceremony of Shia Muslims is called 'Arbain'. Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA), the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the founder of Islam, was martyred in Karbala, Iraq on the 10th of the Arabic month of Muharram in 680 AD. Arbain is observed by Shia Muslims 40 days after his death.

This Arbaeen ceremony is held in Karbala. Every year Pakistani Shia Muslims travel to Karbala to attend Arbain and many of them prefer to travel through Iran by road.

All the passengers who were injured in Tuesday's accident are from the Larkana district of Pakistan's Sindh province, said Qamar Abbas, a local leader of Pakistan's Shia Muslims.

Incidentally, Iran's road communication and traffic service system is one of the best service systems in the world in terms of safety. An average of 17,000 people die in Iran every year due to road accidents. The two main reasons for these accidents are drivers' indifference to obeying traffic laws and unsafe vehicles.