PAKISTAN: Pakistani hospitals on Monday struggled to treat scores of severely burned victims of a fuel tanker explosion that killed at least 146 people, as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif flew back from an overseas trip to visit the injured.
More than 118 people were injured in the explosion in the eastern province of Punjab, which came as people gathered to collect leaking fuel after the tanker overturned on Sunday, government officials and rescue workers said.
The disaster was one of several deadly events to mar the run-up to Monday’s Eid Al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. At least 65 people were killed in bombings in two cities on Friday claimed by Islamist militants including the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
A burst tire apparently caused the speeding fuel tanker to overturn on a sharp bend on a highway on the outskirts of the city of Bahawalpur, provincial spokesman Malik Muhammed Ahmed Khan said.
It was not clear what triggered the fireball but on Sunday, a spokesman for rescue services said someone was believed to have lit a cigarette.
“Rehabilitation and treatment of the victims is our top priority,” Khan said.
Hospitals are also arranging DNA testing to identify the many bodies that were charred beyond recognition. At least 20 children are among the dead.
Many of the burn victims have been moved the larger cities of Karachi and Lahore. Governments hospital are often-underequipped and the ones in Bahawalpur and nearby Multan were set up only to handle small numbers, Khan said.
The oil tanker driver, who survived, has been detained to assist in an investigation, but early reports do not indicate human error, Khan said.
He said a separate investigation was underway to see why police did not disperse the crowds of people who gathered to collect fuel.
“Police did try but we are looking into what went wrong,” he said.
Prime Minister Sharif visited the injured in Bahawalpur’s Victoria Hospital on Sunday after flying home from a trip to London, his office said.
Television footage showed the prime minister standing by the bedsides of victims.
Sharif had been in London to attend his grandson’s graduation ceremony, his daughter Maryam said in a tweet.
Burn victims overwhelm Pakistani hospitals after tanker fire kills 146
Burn victims overwhelm Pakistani hospitals after tanker fire kills 146
US says Mexican cartel drones breached Texas airspace
- Drone breach comes some five months into a US military campaign targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats
- US media also reported that the El Paso airspace closure may have been caused by the US military
HOUSTON: The Trump administration said Wednesday that Mexican cartel drones caused the temporary closure of a Texas airport, but some Democratic lawmakers pushed back, suggesting US military activity was responsible for the disruptive shutdown.
The report of the drone breach comes some five months into a US military campaign targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats, and could provide a pretext for President Donald Trump to follow through on his threats to expand the strikes to land.
Trump has specifically threatened to attack cartels inside Mexico, which said it had “no information” on drones at the border.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said late Tuesday the airspace over the Texas border city of El Paso would be shut to all aircraft for 10 days, citing unspecified national “security reasons,” only to lift the closure after less than 24 hours.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X that the FAA and the Defense Department “acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion,” adding: “The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.”
A US administration official meanwhile said the breach was by “Mexican cartel drones,” and that US forces “took action to disable the drones,” without providing specifics.
But Democratic Representative Veronica Escobar, whose district includes El Paso, questioned the Trump administration’s explanation, saying it was “not what we in Congress have been told.”
“The information coming from the administration does not add up and it’s not the information that I was able to gather overnight and this morning,” Escobar told journalists.
And top Democratic lawmakers from the House Committee on Transportation suggested the Pentagon may have been responsible for the situation, saying defense policy legislation allows the US military to “act recklessly in the public airspace.”
The lawmakers called for a solution that ensures “the Department of Defense will not jeopardize safety and disrupt the freedom to travel.”
- War against ‘narco-terrorists’ -
US media also reported that the El Paso airspace closure may have been caused by the US military, with CNN saying the shutdown was the result of Pentagon plans to use a counter-drone laser without coordinating with the FAA.
The Pentagon referred questions on the closure to the FAA, which said when it announced the move that “no pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas” covered by the restrictions and warned of potentially “deadly force” if aircraft were deemed a threat.
It updated its guidance Wednesday morning, saying on X that the closure was lifted.
Trump’s administration insists it is effectively at war with “narco-terrorists,” carrying out strikes on alleged traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, while the US president has repeatedly said he plans to expand the strikes to land.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum opposes US military intervention in her country but has so far managed to negotiate a fine diplomatic line with Trump.
She has stepped up extradition of cartel leaders to the United States and reinforced border cooperation amid tariff threats from Trump, for whom curbing illegal migration from Mexico was a key election promise.
Sheinbaum told a news conference Wednesday that she had “no information on the use of drones at the border,” but that her government was investigating.
The United States began carrying out strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in September, a campaign that has killed at least 130 people and destroyed dozens of vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
US officials have not provided definitive evidence that the vessels are involved in drug trafficking, prompting heated debate about the legality of the operations, which experts say amount to extrajudicial killings.
Trump also ordered a shocking special forces raid in Caracas at the beginning of January to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, whom Washington accused of leading a drug cartel.
