At least 35 people have died, and dozens more injured, after two separate bus crashes took place just hours apart in Pakistan.

The first happened when a bus carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims, returning from Iraq through Iran, fell from a highway into a ravine in southwest Pakistan killing at least 12 people and injuring 32 others, police and officials said.

It happened on the Makran coastal highway after the driver lost control of the bus when its brakes failed while passing through Lasbela district in Baluchistan province, local police chief Qazi Sabir said.

Hours later, dozens of people were killed when a bus fell into a ravine in Kahuta district in the eastern Punjab province, police and officials said.

Different figures are being reported by government officials and rescue coordinators, with the interior ministry saying 29 have died, while rescue works say 22 were killed and one critically injured.

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Bus accidents are common in Pakistan and these latest two come just days after another 28 Pakistani pilgrims died in neighbouring Iran after their bus overturned and caught fire due to a faulty braking system.

The bodies of those victims were brought home on a Pakistani military plane on Saturday and buried in the southern Sindh province.

They had been on their way to Iraq to commemorate Arbaeen, which marks the end of a period of 40 days of mourning for Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, and a central figure in Shiite Islam.

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