A private sleeper bus bound for Hyderabad, carrying 29 passengers caught fire in the early hours of Friday near Humnabad in adjoining Karnataka State, resulting in the death of a 6 year-old boy Vihaan, hailing from Tanuku in Andhra Pradesh. Seven others who sustained serious burns were rushed to a hospital nearby and are being treated.
According to preliminary information, eye-witnesses were said to have seen the bus suddenly being lapped up by flames just outside Humnabad, about 170 km away from here. Even as the police and a fire tender rushed to the spot, the bus was reduced to a bare steel frame. The police immediately arranged ambulances and alerted doctors at the hospital and hence treatment for the injured began almost instantaneously.
When contacted, Transport Commissioner of Telangana, Sandeep Kumar Sultania said the bus that was registered in Pondicherry was being run in the name of Cauvery Travels. He declined to hazard any guess as to how the bus caught fire and said he was told by the police that a short-circuit could have been responsible.
However, in the wake of disturbances witnessed across Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the issue of Cauvery waters, sources did not rule out the possibility about the bus being set on fire deliberately, in an act of sabotage/vandalism. Although most of the passengers were fast asleep, a passenger who was awake was said to have told the police that the bus was stopped on the road and set on fire. Further information is awaited.
