2 killed, 12 injured in road accidents in Afghanistan's Ghazni

Kabul, Aug 24 (IANS) At least two people were killed and 12 others injured in two separate road accidents in east Afghanistan's Ghazni province, local media reports said on Sunday.

The accidents occurred in Ghazni city, the provincial capital, and the Ab Band district on a road linking Ghazni to neighbouring Kandahar province, leaving two victims dead on the spot and 12 others wounded, the report said.

All the injured have been taken to nearby health facilities for treatment, with most reported to be in critical condition, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the state-run Bakhtar news agency.

Earlier on Friday, 12 people lost their lives and four others sustained injuries as a tractor slid into a river in the southern Afghanistan Helmand province, provincial Director for Information and Culture, Hafiz Abdul Bari Rashid said.

The deadly accident took place in Garmsir district, claiming the lives of three women and nine children on the spot and injuring four others, all children, the official added, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Security personnel reached the site of the accident on time and rescued 14 others, the official said.

In Afghanistan's countryside, the villagers often use tractors and animals as instruments to transport people and agricultural products.

In a similar incident, at least 24 commuters were injured as a passenger bus collided with a truck in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province on Thursday night, provincial police spokesman Mawlawi Shir Ahmad Burhani said Friday.

The accident took place on a road linking the capital city of Kabul to the northern Mazar-i-Sharif city, leaving 24 travellers injured, some in critical condition, the official added, saying all the injured had been shifted to a hospital in the provincial capital, Pul-e-Khumri city.

Earlier this week, at least 64 commuters were killed and three others sustained injuries in a deadly road mishap in western Afghanistan's Herat province, head of the rescue department in the province, Abdul Zahir Noorzai, said Wednesday. The accident took place on Tuesday night after a passenger bus collided with a motorbike and a mini-truck on a road linking the neighbouring Iran to Herat city in Afghanistan.

--IANS

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