As many as 138 people were burnt alive and 117 injured, several of them severely, when an oil tanker which skidded off the National Highway caught fire near Ahmadpur East, Bahawalpur on 25th June. death toll goes up to more than 190 on 29th June.
As the tanker going to Lahore from Karachi with 50,000 litres of petrol overturned in front of Basti Azam Joya, farmers working in nearby cotton fields gathered with kitchen utensils to collect the leaking fuel.
Soon the tanker and spilled oil caught fire with a huge bang. The fire was so intense that it reduced everything at the site, including three cars, 75 motorcycles and a motorcycle rickshaw, to skeletons within no time.
There were conflicting preliminary reports about the cause of the explosion: some said the fuel was ignited by an attempt to light a cigarette near the overturned tanker, and others blamed a spark from one of the numerous cars and motorcycles that rushed to the scene.
Most bodies were burned beyond recognition, many down to their skeletons. At least six cars and twelve motorcycles were burned in the explosion. The highway was littered with kitchen utensils, pots, water coolers, jerrycans and buckets which victims had brought to collect the petrol. The driver of the fuel tanker was kept under arrest for investigation, but he was one of those in critical condition and later died in hospital. Over 120 dead victims, who were beyond recognition, were buried in a mass grave.