The bus left the road at about 2:15 am on Wednesday, 7 January 2026, and dropped into a ravine 100 feet deep near Dhoke Pathan village in Punjab. Five people died. Rescue 1122, the provincial emergency service, counted 24 injured. A separate report carried by UrduPoint put the figure at least 27, seven of them women.
Qazi Muhammad Akram, a spokesperson for Chakwal Rescue 1122, told Dawn that the bus was bound for Bahawalpur from Rawalpindi. Fog had closed the motorway, he said, so the driver switched to another road. The village sits on the bank of the Sowaan River, and it was there that the driver lost control. Five passengers, the driver among them, died on the spot. Rescue teams reached the site soon after being alerted.
Police officials gave UrduPoint a slightly different account. In their version the bus was heading from Rawalpindi to Karachi and went over the edge while taking a sharp turn in the Dhok Pathan area. Police and rescuers carried the dead and injured to the Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) Hospital in Talagang. Rescue officials warned that the death toll could rise.
It was not the first deadly crash on Punjab’s roads in recent weeks. On 31 December 2025, a bus and a van collided on the Jhang-Faisalabad road, killing more than 14 passengers and injuring 16. The toll reached 17 in the days that followed as more of the injured died.
In November, three officers of the National Highways and Motorway Police lost their lives near Uch Sharif when a passenger bus ran into their patrol vehicle. Sub-Inspector Muhammad Mushtaq, Assistant Sub-Inspector Nasir Abbas and Constable Osama Ali Gujar were killed, and the patrol car was destroyed. The bus had been travelling from Karachi to Peshawar, according to Motorway Police spokesperson Syed Imran Ahmad.
Sources
- Pakistan News: 5 Killed, 24 Injured As Bus Plunges Into Ravine In Punjab
- Five Killed, Several Hurt As Bus Plunges Into Ravine Near Chakwal – UrduPoint
