Dhaka (dpa) – At least 15 Muslim pilgrims died when a passenger bus plunged into a roadside ditch in Bangladesh Friday, police said. The bus, carrying at least 45 passengers, mostly pilgrims heading to a congregation in southern Barisal district, fell into the ditch at Pantapara, some 70 kilometers south-west of the capital, Dhaka. Thirteen died at the scene, district police chief Nazrul Hossain said. Twenty-one others were critically injured, with two of them dying at a local hospital. Reckless driving, lax implementation of traffic laws, poor road infrastructure and use of obsolete vehicles causes frequent traffic accidents in Bangladesh, claiming an average of 2,500 lives a year, according to police counts. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/YTUct Tags: Accident, Bangladesh, Muslims, Pilgrims Section: South Asia
