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Pakistan marks grim Eid after oil tanker inferno kills 153
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Condolences: Pakistani villagers gather at the site of an oil tanker fire following an accident in the town of Ahmedpur East on Monday. Pakistan began Eid in mourning on June 26 as the death toll from an oil tanker explosion rose to 153, with scores more injured after they were caught in a fireball while scooping up spilt fuel.
(AFP/SS Mirza)
P
akistan began Eid in mourning Monday as the death toll from an oil tanker explosion rose to 153, with scores more injured after they were caught in a fireball while scooping up spilt fuel.
Dozens of grief-stricken relatives waited outside hospitals in Bahawalpur, the nearest major city to the disaster, to claim the bodies of their loved ones as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived to visit victims.
"The day of Eid has become a day of mourning and pain for us," Sharif told the media outside Victoria Hospital, adding he has ordered an inquiry and compensation of two million rupees ($20,000) for the families of the dead, and one million rupees for the injured.
Eid al-Fitr, a normally joyous occasion, marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
The tanker overturned early Sunday on a main highway from Karachi to Lahore while carrying some 40,000 liters of fuel. It exploded as crowds gathered to scavenge for fuel, ignoring warnings to stay away.
The accident quickly drew scores of people from a nearby village, many armed with whatever containers they could find despite warnings from the driver and police of the danger.
Minutes later the tanker exploded, engulfing the crowd as well as dozens of other vehicles in a massive fireball that sent a plume of thick smoke into the sky.
