Jammu, Mar 02: Ten people, including two women, were killed and 34 others injured in three separate road accidents in Udhampur, Kishtwar and Ramban districts, officials said Saturday.
A private bus, carrying nearly 40 people to Kashmir, skidded off a hilly road and rolled down into a deep gorge at Chandeh village near Surinsar in Udhampur district around midnight when its driver lost control over the vehicle, the officials said.
They said the driver had reportedly taken the interior route to dodge traffic police in view of the restrictions on the main Srinagar-Jammu national highway which opened for traffic from Jammu to Srinagar on Saturday after five days of closure due to landslides caused by rain and snowfall.
Five persons — Mohammad Iqbal Barkat and Manzoor Ahmad (both residents of Shopian district), Farooq Ahmad and Asiya Bashir (Bandipora) and Javed Ahmad (Budgam) — were found dead while 32 were rescued and rushed to Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu for treatment, the officials said.
They said one of the injured, Ghulam Ahmad Mir of Baramulla, was declared dead by doctors on arrival while five others were stated to be “critical”.
In another accident, the officials said three persons, including a young woman, were killed and three were injured when a cab fell into a deep gorge at Dadpeth-Mugalmaidan in Kishtwar district around 9.40 am Saturday.
The cab was on way to Kishtwar when the accident happened, the officials said.
A driver, Gurdev Singh of Jammu, was killed in a head-on collision between two trucks near Ramban on Srinagar-Jammu national highway this morning, the officials said.
Guv expresses grief, announce ex-gratia
Jammu, Mar 02: Governor Satya Pal Malik Saturday expressed grief over the death of six people and injuries to 31 others in a road accident in Udhampur district.
In a condolence message, the Governor conveyed his sympathies to the bereaved families and prayed for peace to the departed souls, a spokesman of the Raj Bhavan said.
Malik directed the administration to provide best medical treatment to the injured persons in the accident and wished speedy recovery to them, he said.
The governor also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 20,000 each to those injured in the accident, the spokesman said.
