Pakistan fuel tanker fire leaves at least 150 dead

ISLAMABAD — When a tanker truck overturned on a road in eastern Pakistan on Sunday, hundreds of people rushed toward the vehicle to collect the spilled and leaking fuel.

Using buckets, bottles and cans, they scooped up some of the 5,500 gallons of fuel that was gushing onto the road. For about an hour, men, women and children from nearby villages, as well as some passers-by who pulled over in their vehicles, collected the windfall, despite attempts by police to warn them away from the scene.

Then, suddenly, the truck caught fire and exploded, killing at least 150 people and seriously injuring at least 100 others.

At least 73 motorbikes and several cars were destroyed in the blast, which occurred the day before Pakistan celebrates Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday at the end of Ramadan.

“It is a horrible tragedy,” said Makhdoom Syed Hassan Gillani, the parliamentary representative of Ahmedpur East, the small city in Punjab province where the disaster occurred. “You can blame poverty 100 percent,” he added with a heavy voice. “It was poverty. It was greed. It was ignorance.”

Fuel is a high-value commodity in Pakistan, so even for those aware of the risks, the prospect of obtaining it free was too powerful a lure to ignore. Ahmedpur East has long suffered from poverty, illiteracy and a lack of modern facilities, and residents have blamed the provincial government for spending money on urban areas at the expense of rural regions.

Abdul Rashid, 30, one of those injured, said he and a friend had joined in collecting the spilled fuel after passing by the area and seeing others trying to scoop it.

“I parked my bike by the road and waited while my friend went to collect the fuel,” said Rashid, who had burns on one hand and a leg. “We did not have any bottles, so we asked people and got one. The bottle was small, so my friend went thrice to collect the fuel.”

He said he did know what had happened to his friend after the fire broke out.