At least 10 killed as oxygen cylinder explodes in ambulance in Tharparkar

MITHI — At least 10 people were killed and several others injured when an oxygen cylinder exploded inside an ambulance in Sindh’s Tharparkar district on Wednesday night. The blast happened at a basic health unit run by the People’s Primary Healthcare Initiative (PPHI) in Dano Dhandhal village, in Nagarparkar taluka, where staff were preparing to transfer a patient to another hospital. The ambulance caught fire and was completely gutted.

What happened at 10:40pm

According to Rescue 1122, the explosion occurred at about 10:40pm while staff were fitting an oxygen cylinder inside the ambulance. The woman being transferred had given birth to a baby boy at the same health centre and was being moved to the District Headquarters Hospital in Mithi because of post-surgical complications. Early reports put the death toll at seven, with five injured. As injured victims succumbed during Thursday, the count rose first to nine and then to at least 10.

Among the dead are the ambulance driver, Ishaq Thebo, a PPHI dispenser, a watchman and another employee of the centre. Rescue officials initially named Jaswant and Pandhi Rajar among the victims, but several bodies were so badly charred that identification could not be completed at once. Two midwives and a female attendant at the centre are among the injured, who were first taken to Mithi and later, in some cases, on to Karachi.

The official response

President Asif Ali Zardari expressed grief over the loss of life and ordered a prompt, transparent inquiry, saying safety measures must be strengthened to prevent such incidents. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah announced Rs2 million in compensation for each bereaved family, directed that the injured receive the best possible treatment, and ordered a transparent inquiry. PPP MPA Qasim Soomro has been sent to Nagarparkar to oversee relief efforts, while PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also took notice and called for a thorough investigation to establish the facts.

The question that remains

Sindh Home and Law Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar has sought details from Tharparkar’s senior superintendent of police and deputy commissioner, and expert teams from Mirpurkhas and Karachi have been called in to examine the evidence. Police say they are also looking into other angles. Local residents have alleged that inadequate facilities at PPHI-run hospitals in Tharparkar contributed to the tragedy — an allegation that is unproven, but one that turns the inquiry towards a wider question: how safely is sensitive equipment like oxygen handled at rural health centres? The question is not new. In August, a nursery fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad killed 14 newborns, and the one baby rescued from the nursery died weeks later.