GUJRAT: The death toll of a passenger van hre incident near Sohawa reached nine as another victim succumbed to burns on Monday.

Six of the critically injured passengers have been shifted to Kharian Combined Military Hospital`s burn unit and another was shifted to Rawalpindi from the Jhelum District Headquarters Hospital.

Only one body, that of Osama from Kharian, has been identified.

He was studying in a Rawalpindi university. The bodies have been shifted to mortuary of the Jhelum DHQ Hospital where a help desk hasbeen established for relatives of the deceased.

Jhelum Chief Executive Officer (Health) Dr Waseem confirmed the death of nine passengers in the incident.

Talking to the reporters, he said the samples of the bodies would be sent to the lab for identification and a focal person had been appointed to help out families of the deceased.

He said the bodies would be identified through the DNA tests and by matching the samples with those of the close kin of the deceased who arrived in Jhelum.

Jhelum Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Meesam Abbas told Dawn by telephone that the bodies which had been burnt badly would be identified throughteeth of the deceased and the samples would be sent or the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA), Lahore, for identification.

Meanwhile, the Sohawa police registered a case against the driver of theill-fatedvan,AzharMahmood, a resident of Taxila. He is said to be among the injured shif ted to a hospital in Rawalpindi.

The case is registered under various secdons of the Pakistan Penal Code on the report of Abdul Rehman, an of ficial of the Pakistan Air Force, who reported that the van departed from Gujranwala for Rawalpindi and it hit a trailer near Sohawa due to the negligence of its driver. As a result of the accident, the fire erupted in the van and burnt the passengers.