Landslide strikes bus in northern Pakistan, killing three on the road to Dasu
Event date: 2024-09-02
A landslide struck a passenger bus in northern Pakistan and killed three people, including two security officials, police said. The crash happened in Kohistan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and injured one additional passenger, turning a rainy-season road incident into a fatal accident on a route already known for difficult terrain.
Local police chief Abdul Rahim said the bus was heading to Dasu district, where Pakistan's biggest hydropower project is being built with Chinese help. That location matters because the road is not just a local highway; it is part of a strategic route tied to a major infrastructure project. The bus was hit as a landslide came down after rainfall, Rahim said, correcting an early assumption that the vehicle had struck a landmine.
The correction is important because the distinction changes the story from possible sabotage to weather-triggered disaster. In Pakistan, landslides and road accidents are common during the rainy season, especially in mountainous areas where slopes can give way without warning. The source describes exactly that sort of environment: a bus on a mountain route, a rainfall-triggered slide and a sudden death toll.
The crash also illustrates the risks faced by passengers and officials traveling through remote northern districts. Two of the dead were security personnel, showing that even routine movement along project corridors can carry risk when roads are cut into unstable hillsides. One passenger was injured, which means at least part of the bus's load survived, but the impact was still severe enough to kill three people outright.
The AP report does not say whether rescue work was still underway or whether the road was reopened. It does show how quickly authorities had to revise their first reading of the scene. In mountainous districts, initial reports can be wrong because debris, rain and distance make it hard to see what really happened. In this case, the final explanation was a natural slide rather than an explosive device.
For Pakistan, the broader point is that weather, road design and heavy traffic continue to make transport dangerous in areas where major construction and civilian travel overlap. The Dasu route is one of those places, and the landslide adds another fatal entry to the country's rainy-season accident list.
The route to Dasu also matters because it connects to one of Pakistan's biggest infrastructure projects. The AP report said the hydropower project is being built with Chinese help, which means traffic along the road carries both civilian and strategic significance. A rain-triggered slide on that route is therefore not just a local accident; it is a reminder of how exposed mountain transport remains when heavy construction, weather and unstable slopes meet.
The road accident sits in a corridor where weather and construction meet. The bus was heading toward Dasu, and the source said the area is linked to Pakistan's biggest hydropower project. In that kind of terrain, rain can turn a road section unstable in minutes, which is why the initial landmine theory had to be discarded once police reviewed the scene.
