Bodies of 28 pilgrims killed in Iran arrive in Pakistan

The bodies of 28 pilgrims killed when their bus crashed in central Iran while they were travelling to a major Shia Muslim ritual have been returned to Pakistan.

The bus was carrying 51 Pakistani pilgrims to Iraq for the Arbaeen commemoration, one of the biggest events of the Shia calendar, when it overturned and caught fire in front of a checkpoint in Yazd province on Tuesday night, Iranian state TV reported.

The bodies were transported from Yazd to an airfield in southern Pakistan, where most of the deceased were from and from where they had begun their journey.

The coffins, each draped with a Pakistani flag, arrived in the city of Jacobabad shortly before midnight on Friday, an AFP journalist witnessed.

A fleet of ambulances then took the bodies to their hometowns.

Other pilgrims injured in the crash were moved to hospitals in Karachi.

Those killed included 11 women and 17 men, Yazd province crisis management chief Ali Malek-zadeh told the Iranian broadcaster.

Head of Iran traffic police, Teymour Hosseini, cited a brake failure and the steep road as the reasons for the crash.

Arbaeen marks the 40th day of mourning for Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

Some 22 million pilgrims attended the commemoration last year in the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala, where Hussein and his brother Abbas are buried, according to official figures.