MIRPUR (AJK) - At least 12 people including four women were killed and 14 others injured, eight of them critically when a passenger van plunged into deep ravine in the mountainous Bagh district of Azad Jammu Kashmir here Sunday morning, officials said.
According to Deputy Commissioner Bagh Dr Ibrar Azam told this correspondent on the phone on Sunday that the ill-fated Rawalpindi-bound Coaster (Peshawar E-2404) was on the way from Sudhan Galli when it met the accident at around 6:30am. The vehicle went out of the control of the driver and fell into more than 250-feet deep ravine at Arja Bridge, about 25 km from Bagh City. Resultantly 12 of its passengers including four women died on the spot while 14 others sustained multiple injuries.
The deceased were identified as driver Khalid s/o Nishat, Muhammad Ghazi s/o Ismail, Moosa Saadi s/o Fida Hussain, Yasmeen s/o Aslam, Azher Yousaf s/o Muhammad Yousaf, Nasir s/o Nazir, Ayaa Khan s/o Shah Zaman, Bashiran Begam, wife of Muhammad Shafi, Zainab w/o Muhammad Yaseen, Ghulam Hussain s/o Zaheer, Rizwan Hanif s/o Muhammad Naneef and Javeriya, daughter of Abdul Hameed”, authorized Bagh police sources told this scribe. Most of the deceased belonged to Abbotabad, Peshwar, Swat besides various parts of AJK, the police sources added.
“Eight of the seriously injured passengers have been shifted to hospitals in Islamabad”, the Deputy Commissioner said, adding that rest of the injured were admitted in Bagh District Hospital. Rescue teams of the police and the local district administration rushed to the scene and brought out the bodies and the injured from the ravine.