QUETTA: Road crashes have killed more people in Balochistan than terror attacks in recent years, according to new data released by the Medical Emergency Response Center (MERC).
MERC’s five-year report shows 77,826 road accidents occurred across the province between October 2019 and September 2025. The crashes killed 1,743 people and injured more than 103,000.
In 2024 alone, MERC recorded 22,252 road accidents that left 402 dead and over 30,000 injured. Most incidents happened on highways in Turbat, Panjgur, Gwadar, Lasbela, Khuzdar, Qalat, and Quetta.
By comparison, a report from the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies said 225 people were killed in Baloch militant attacks last year. The figures suggest traffic accidents now claim more lives than terrorism in the province.
Locals blame poor roads, untrained drivers, and official negligence. Balochistan has no dual carriageways, and most highways remain broken and narrow. Overloaded buses and fuel-smuggling vehicles frequently crash on the Makran and Quetta-Karachi routes.
The Quetta-Karachi highway — known as the “bloody road” — remains incomplete three years after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered its expansion. Accidents there occur almost daily, but authorities have taken no visible action.
Last year, a Turbat-Quetta bus crash killed 28 people, including two university professors. Officials sealed the bus company’s office for one week but carried out no inquiry.
Critics say police and security checkpoints across the province focus on extortion rather than safety. They accuse both provincial and federal governments of ignoring the crisis.
Analysts warn that road crashes have become a silent epidemic in Balochistan. They say the death toll exposes deep governance failures, poor infrastructure, and official apathy toward human life.
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Safety advocates urge Islamabad to upgrade roads, enforce traffic laws, and end corruption in the transport sector before more lives are lost.
