Eleven people were killed in the early hours of Sunday, February 15, 2026, when a bus and a trailer collided on the National Highway near Tando Masti in Sindh’s Khairpur district. The bus was carrying passengers from Punjab to Karachi.
Conflicting accounts of the crash
The reports do not fully agree. The National Highways and Motorway Police said eight people were injured, and in an earlier statement blamed “negligence and recklessness on the bus driver’s part.” Geo News, citing rescue sources, said the dead were nine passengers, the driver and the conductor, and that the coach had hit a trailer carrying heavy concrete girders. Arab News quoted a police report from the Khairpur senior superintendent, Dr. Samiullah Soomro, that put the crash at 1:20 a.m. and said the trailer struck the bus from behind. That report counted nine injured. Geo reported ten.
The Edhi Foundation told Geo that the bodies went to Khairpur Civil Hospital. According to the police report, three of the injured were taken there and six to GIMS Hospital in Gambat. The trailer was taken into police custody. “Further investigation and updates are in progress,” the report said.
Response from officials
The motorway police said rescue teams reached the site quickly and that an emergency control room had been set up. The force’s inspector general asked for a report. The Sindh police chief ordered the Khairpur senior superintendent to oversee the rescue.
President Asif Ali Zardari expressed sorrow, state broadcaster PTV reported, and told the Sindh government to give the injured “the best facilities.” He called for a “coordinated strategy” to enforce traffic rules on national highways. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah directed officials to enforce traffic laws strictly.
Not the first this month
The collision came a few days after a crash on the M9 Motorway near Karachi involving an oil tanker and a passenger bus. Dawn put that death toll at 13, while Geo reported at least 14. A first information report lodged over that crash covers culpable homicide and negligent driving.
Arab News noted that road accidents are particularly common in Sindh, where single carriageway roads link cities and villages and drivers often ignore traffic rules and speed limits. Eight people died last month when a car and a trailer collided on the Jamshoro-Thatta road near Kotri.
Sources
- 11 killed, 8 injured in bus-trailer collision on National Highway in Khairpur: motorway police (Dawn)
- At least 11 killed, including driver and conductor, in Khairpur bus crash (Geo News)
- At least 11 killed, 9 injured as trailer collides with passenger bus in southern Pakistan (Arab News Pakistan)
