National Desk
18 May
Sandeep Dhand Ludhiana
In a tragic incident, nine persons, including five women and a 12-year-old girl, were burnt alive and 17 others injured when a tourist bus caught fire on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway near Dhulawat village in the early hours of Saturday, police said.
The bus, carrying around 60 people from Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, and Jalandhar, was returning from a pilgrimage to Ayodhya, Mathura, and Vrindavan when it caught fire. All passengers were relatives from Punjab. A short circuit in the AC box is suspected to be the cause, but an investigation is underway.
An FIR has been registered against the driver, who fled the scene. Of the 17 injured, two were referred to PGIMS, Rohtak, and one to a hospital in Gurugram. The rest were treated at Nalhar medical college, Nuh, and discharged.
Local resident Vasim reported that passersby attempted to alert the driver about the fire, but he continued driving for almost 2 km. Four fire tenders managed to extinguish the blaze. Three of the deceased are yet to be identified. The identified victims include residents from Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, and Mohali.
Authorities have appointed SDM Sanjeev Kumar as the nodal officer for the investigation.