At least 28 Pakistani pilgrims travelling to Iraq for a Muslim religious ceremony died when the bus they were travelling in crashed in central Iran, state media reported today.
‘A bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims overturned and caught fire outside the Dehshir-Taft checkpoint in the central province of Yazd on Tuesday night,’ Iranian state television reported.
‘Twenty-eight people died and 23 were injured,’ it added.
The head of crisis management in Yazd province, Ali Malek-Zadeh, told state television that some of the injured were in critical condition.
‘Of the 23 injured, six have already been discharged from hospital, while seven are in critical condition,’ Malek-Zadeh said.
The busload of Pakistani pilgrims was travelling through Iran towards Iraq to take part in the commemoration of Arbain (‘Forty’ in Arabic), which in the Shiite calendar marks the 40th day of mourning for Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, and is one of the largest religious gatherings in the world.
Last year, around 22 million pilgrims attended the commemoration in the Iraqi city of Kerbala, where Hussein and his brother Abbas are buried, according to official figures.
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