45 dead in PIA plane crash

A Pakistan International Airlines passenger plane crashed at Suraj Miani, near here, on Monday and burst into flames killing all 45 people on board. The flames could be seen at some distance from the scene of the crash, where the plane appeared to have hit electric power line while taking off for Lahore.
The plane fell in an open field, and police soon cordoned off the scene of mishap and rescue operations were started. The Lahore-bound Fokker plane (flight PK-688) took off from Multan airport at 1205 pm and fell on the ground within ten minutes.
The Captain seemed to have tried to save the populated area of Suraj Miani as a result of which the plane fell in open fields, otherwise there would been more than 200 casualties.An airhostess, to save her life, jumped from the burning plane but could not survive and died.
Eye witnesses said that the plane was likely to fall down in thickly populated area of Multan but the pilot succeeded to turn it towards plain fields and tried to land there. In this process plane hit electric line and caught fire. They said that the plane burnt completely within ten minutes and all passengers were burnt alive as their bodies were found badly scorched.
Rescue teams took out the mutilated bodies. There were 41 passengers and four crew members on board the Flight PK 688. PIA and Civil Aviation officials and fire tenders and ambulances immediately reached the spot of crash and started relief operations.
The names of the passengers and crew on board the ill-fated plane are as following: Professor Muhammad Naseer Khan, vice-chancellor of Bahauddin Zakariya University, Brigadier Aftab Ahmed, Brigadier Farhat Sabir, Justice Muhammad Nawaz Bhatti, Justice Nazeer Ahmed Siddiqui of Lahore High Court Multan Bench, Dr Iftikhar Ali Raja, a neurosurgeon of world repute, Abdul Rahman, Ahmed Ijaz, Arshad Azad, Imtiaz Anwar, Mrs Kanwal Iqbal, Mirza Arshad Baig, Muhammad Murtaza, Salim Shah, Sakhi Muhammad, Waseem Ahmed, Aftab Hussain Khan, Ijaz Ali, Asmatullah Khan, Ashfaq Ahmed, Malik Saeed, Muhammad Irfan, Raja Iftikhar Ali, Miss Sameena Mushtaq, Dr Suhail Ahmed, Zia Hyder, Abdul Rauf, Ali Imran, Mr Anjum, Dr Farzana Kausar, Mrs Captain Hasnain, Muhammad, Aslam Shad, Muhammad Islam Gul, Miss Tehseen Zehra, Altaf Hussain, Miss Aisha, Dr Farheen Fatima, Mr Habib, Dr Humaira Ashraf, Muhammad Arshad Atif, Muhammad Naeem Mughal, and Captain Naveed Tariq.