Tragedy on Herat-Islam Qala Route: 73 Migrants Killed in Bus Fire

Kokcha News Agency: Ahmadullah Muttaqi, the Taliban’s director of information and culture in Herat, told BBC Pashto that a passenger bus heading to Kabul caught fire on Tuesday night after colliding with a truck and a motorcycle in Herat province. The incident resulted in the deaths of all the bus passengers as well as two people from the other vehicles involved.

According to Muttaqi, most of the victims were Afghan migrants who had recently been deported from Iran. The Taliban police command in Herat province also confirmed the incident, stating that the accident occurred on the evening of Tuesday, August 19. Taliban police officials initially said the bus had veered off the main road due to “high speed and driver negligence,” leading to a severe collision with another bus.

An Afghan media outlet earlier reported that the accident occurred when a passenger bus carrying migrants who had crossed the border from Iran into Afghanistan caught fire for unknown reasons. Images shared on social media show the bus engulfed in flames after the collision, with officials attempting to extinguish the fire.

Mohammad Yusuf Saidi, the spokesperson for the governor of Herat province, told AFP: “All the passengers were migrants who had boarded the vehicle in Islam Qala,” a town near the Afghanistan-Iran border.