PESHAWAR: Two personnel of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) were killed and 63 others, including some passers-by, injured when their bus collided with a speeding oil tanker on Kohat Road near Zangli checkpost in Mattani area here on Thursday.

Around 70 troops were returning to Peshawar FC headquarters in a bus (C-1188) from Kohat where they had gone for Muharram security duty. The two soldiers who died in the accident were identified as Mast Amir of Hassankhel and Khalid of Kohat. The injured FC men belong to different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

All the 63 injured were given first-aid by the rescuers of 1122 and then shifted to Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, where eight of them are stated to be in critical condition.

`We were on way from Kohat to Peshawar when the accident occurred,` said one of injured personnel. Others said that the bus was overcrowded and many of them were sitting on its rooftop. In addition, they also had their baggage, arms and ammunitions and could not properly witness as to what had actually happened.

Police officials told mediapersons that the accident occurred due speeding by both the vehicles. They said that the bus driver had received serious injuries and his statement could not be recorded for the time being. The incident also led to suspension of traffic on the busy Kohat-Peshawar road for quite some time, but the police and volunteers of charity organisations managed to clear the road.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser visited the LRH and inquired after the injured FC men. He also directed the hospital`s management to ensure provision of all treatment facilities to the injured.