Sharif heads home to visit tanker victims

LAHORE: Pakistani hospitals yesterday struggled to treat scores of severely burned victims of a fuel tanker explosion that killed at least 146, as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned from an overseas trip to visit the injured.

More than 118 people were also injured in the explosion in the eastern province of Punjab, which came as people were collecting fuel leaking on to the road after the tanker overturned on Sunday, officials and rescue workers said.

The disaster was one of several deadly events to mar the run-up to today’s Eid-ul-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadaan.

At least 65 people were killed in bombings in two cities on Friday, claimed by Islamist militants including the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.