At Least 28 Pakistan Pilgrims Dead as Bus Crashes in Iran

Iranian state media has reported the death of at least 28 passengers as a bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims overturned in Iran.

The crash happened on Tuesday night in the central Iranian province of Yazd and was due to a defective braking system, according to a preliminary police investigation.

Another 23 passengers were injured, seven of them critically, the province's crisis management director told state TV.

The pilgrims were going from the Sindh province in Pakistan to Iraq's holy city of Karbala for the celebration of one of the biggest events in the Shia calendar.

The bus was believed to contain about 53 people at time of the crash, according to reports by Pakistan's Dawn News, including pilgrims from Larkana, Ghotki and cities in Sindh.

The crisis management director, Ali Malekzadeh, confirmed that eleven women and 17 men were among those who died in the crash.

The bus caught fire in front of Dehshir-Taft checkpoint in Iran, around 681km (423 miles) south of the capital Tehran.

Mr Malekzadeh said the bus swerved off the road "due to lack of control by the driver of the vehicle, unfamiliarity with the road, high speed and technical problems".

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari said he was mobilising the foreign ministry to repatriate the bodies of those killed in the crash and provide aid to the injured.

Interior Minister Moshin Naqvi, meanwhile, said: "We are deeply saddened by the loss of precious human lives in the bus accident in Iran."

Pakistan’s consulate in Iran has been asked to assist in recovery efforts, and the country's ambassador to Tehran, Muhammad Mudassir Tipu, said he was in touch with the Iranian government and local authorities in Yazd.

The pilgrimage, known as Arbaeen, marks the end of a period of 40 days of mourning for Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

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