A container truck carrying clothing caught fire on the Indus Highway on Monday near the village of Dhorah Solhan Adda, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan district, destroying goods worth millions of rupees, police said.

According to police, the cause of the fire has yet to be determined. The blaze engulfed the vehicle, reducing the cargo to ashes. Thick smoke spread across the area, completely closing the road to traffic.

Traffic on the Indus Highway, the main road from Peshawar to Karachi, was temporarily suspended, and the road was closed for 1.5 to 2 hours as emergency services rushed to the scene to bring the fire under control.

After the fire was extinguished, the truck’s remains were removed from the highway, and the road was reopened. Authorities said no casualties have been reported so far, while an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the fire.

On April 25, at least 11 people were injured in a traffic accident on the Karakoram Highway in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district. Rescue 1122 told The Express Tribune that the incident occurred near the Maira area within the jurisdiction of Shangla after nightfall, reportedly due to poor visibility on the main highway.

Pakistan records tens of thousands of road accidents annually. The World Health Organisation estimates that more than 27,000 people die each year on our roads, while hundreds of thousands are injured.