Eyewitnesses and survivors accounts have revealed new details of the horrific attack on a bus in Chilas that left atleast nine people dead and 26 injured on Saturday.
According to details, the bus came under fire forcing it to lose control and collide with a truck coming from the opposite direction. The truck then caught fire.
An eyewitness, Muhammad Hussain, said that the firing began suddenly and was so intense that he felt as if rocks were falling on to the bus.
Another survivor, identified as Nazeer, said that the firing was so intense that he believed it was the last day of his life.
Hussain told BBC Urdu that the firing did not stop even after the bus colldied with the truck, which later caught fire. When the hail of bullets finally ceased, there was blood everywhere, he said.
He added that a government vehicle carrying security and rescue officials arrived 45 minutes after the incident.
Meanwhile, Gilgit Baltistan’s Interior Minister Shams Lone said that the bus’s driver had acted with ‘courage’ and had tried to drive away as soon as soon as the bus came under fire.
Lone added that the the driver’s attempt to escape unfortunately led to the collision with the oncoming truck and some deaths might have been caused due to the accident instead of the firing.
He said that the truck had later caught fire leading to the death of the driver.
The minister said that the bus was carrying people from GB, Sindh, Punjab. He added that a religious scholar named Mufti Sher Zaman had also been injured in the attack.
Lone plainly described the attack as an act of terrorism.
