NINE people, including fivewomen and a 12-year-old girl, wereburnt alive and 17 injured when amoving tourist bus caught fire nearDhulawat village in Haryana’s Nuhdistrict in the early hours of Saturday, police said. The incidenttook place around 2 am on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP)Expressway, they said. The bus was carrying around 60people, all residents of Punjab’s Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana, whowere returning from pilgrim townsof Mathura and Vrindavan. All of them are relatives, the police said. The cause of the fire is said tobe a short circuit in the AC box of the bus but it is yet to be ascertained, they said.

 

The police said an FIR has been registered against the busdriver,who fled the scene after the incident, at Sadar Tauru police station. Of the 17 injured, 14have beendischargedfromNalharmedical college, Nuh, while three women are still undergoing treatmentatdifferenthospitals, an official said. Deputy Commissioner, Nuh, Dhirendra Khadgata said the forensic team of Madhuban will investigate the cause of the fireinthebus.SubDivisional Magistrate Tauru Sanjeev Kumar has been appointed as the nodal officer to investigate this matter, he added.