Pakistan Mourns Shiite Pilgrims Killed in Tragic Iran Bus Crash

Pakistan has repatriated the bodies of 28 Shiite pilgrims killed in a bus crash in Iran while en route to Iraq for a pilgrimage. An additional 23 injured pilgrims were also flown back. The tragedy highlights Iran's poor traffic safety record and the dangers faced by religious travelers.

Pakistan brought home Friday the bodies of 28 Shiite pilgrims killed in a bus crash in Iran this week while heading to Iraq for a pilgrimage. A Pakistani military aircraft also flew back 23 pilgrims injured in the accident, officials said.

Earlier in the day in Iran, officials handed over the bodies of the crash victims to Pakistani diplomats. Prayer services were held in both Iran and later in Pakistan.

Funerals were to take place in the victims' home districts early Saturday. The pilgrims were from Pakistan's southern Sindh province, provincial government spokesman Nasir Shah said.

The plane, requested by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for the repatriation, landed at the airport in Jacobabad, about 1,000 kilometres southwest of Islamabad. The coffins, covered in Pakistan's national flag, were handed over to the victims' relatives for burial.

State-run PTV broadcast the ceremony at the Jacobabad airport, where victims' relatives cried and hugged each other.

Authorities have not revealed the cause of the crash near the city of Taft, some 500 kilometres southeast of Tehran.

In a state TV report, local Iranian emergency official Mohammad Ali Malekzadeh blamed the crash on brake failure and driver inattention. A surveillance video later aired by state TV showed the bus speeding past a parked car into a dirt lot just before the crash, narrowly missing bystanders.

Iran has one of the world's worst traffic safety records with some 17,000 deaths annually. The grave toll is blamed on wide disregard for traffic laws, unsafe vehicles, and inadequate emergency services in its vast rural areas.

The pilgrims were heading to Iraq's holy city of Karbala to commemorate Arbaeen — marking the end of the 40-day mourning period after the seventh century death of Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Hussein, a key Shiite figure.

Hussein died at the hands of Muslim Umayyad forces in the Battle of Karbala during the tumultuous 1st century of Islam's history.

(With inputs from agencies.)