J&K: 14 killed, 16 injured as bus falls in deep gorge

The Asian Age.

India, All India

Three of the critically injured passengers have been airlifted to winter capital Jammu for specialised treatment, the officials said.

Rescue operations underway at the accident site, where a bus rolled down into a gorge at Mandi area of Poonch. (Photo: PTI)

Srinagar: Fourteen people including a mother-daughter duo and three other women were killed and sixteen others were injured when a passenger bus skidded off the road and rolled down into a deep gorge in Jammu and Kashmir’s frontier district of Poonch on Saturday.

The police said that the ill-fated 42-seater bus was on its way to Poonch town from Loran village when it met with the accident near Plera village after driver lost control over the steering.

Three of the critically injured passengers have been airlifted to winter capital Jammu for specialised treatment, the officials said. Among the dead are a 2-year-old girl Afia Parveen and her mother Parveen Akhter, 35. The other deceased were identified by the police as Aijaz Ahmad (32), Muhammad Yasirr (10), Wali Muhammad (72), Ghulam Hussain (52), Bashir Ahmad (38), Shariefa (40), Nazia Akhter (17), Gulshan Akhter (21), Muhammad Yousuf (26), Bashir Ahmad (50), Abdul Rashid (45) and Muhammad Rashid-all local residents.

The police and hospital sources said that six of them were found dead on the spot and eight more succumbed to injuries while being evacuated from the scene or in hospital.

Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee demanded an investigation into the frequent accidents in the mountainous belts.

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