Ramban: At least 17 persons including six women died in a deadly road accident on Jammu-Srinagar highway Monday night when a bus carrying students, laborers and tourists, rolled down into a 400 feet deep gorge near the rugged Digdola in Rambhan. Dozens have been injured in the accident.
The bus bearing JK02J/3547 was on way to Srinagar from Jammu late Monday night. The officials, quoting wounded passengers, said the driver had lost balance after a nap moment near Digdol, the dangerous curvy patch near Rambhan.
Authorities said immediate reinforcements were rushed to the spot for rescue operation but the local residents said, “The accident occured around 2:30 a.m. while the rescue operation started more than two hours after the accident.” The locals alleged several persons would have survived had they been timely removed to the hospital. They were screaming and shouting. They shouted save us, save us, recalled a man who was among those reaching first on the spot. The locals used batteries and lanterns to find out the injured as the accident occurred during the dead of the night, witnesses said.
Officials said the casualties were driven to the Ramban Hospital where a large number of volunteers donated blood for the wounded. 17 out of 34 injured persons had serious injuries and were flown to Jammu Medical College in critical condition.
Army, police, quick response teams and the paramilitary CRPF launched rescue and search operation and recovered the bodies from the gorge.
The bus was reportedly carrying some tourists, a group of students from Poonch were coming here to participate in army’s recruitment drive and some laborers including those from Jharkhand and Punjab.
According to police official, only ten persons were identified because some of the bodies were found mangled. Some of the deceased have been identified as Radha wife of Rajendar Kumar, her young daughter Khania Devi resident of Punjab, Preshan Lal son of Makhan Lal of Amritsar, Shezad Ahmed son of Sirja Ahmed resident of Jharkhand, Roma Devi wife of Soujan Kumar of Satwari Jammu, Shardah Devi wife of Ashok Kumar resident of Punjab, Rameez Khan son of Muhammad Khalil of Mendher Poonch, Muhammad Ayoub Khan son of Ghulam Hasan of Anantnag, Vijay Kumar son of Ashok Kumar resident of Rajsthan and Kulwant Singh son of Wakil Singh resident of Samba jammu.
Almost all the political leaders including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Dr Farooq Abdullah, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, Mehbooba Mufti and others expressed shock over the deadly accident and expressed sympathies with the family members of deceased.
Mehbooba Mufti and newly elected Parliament member Dr Jitendra Singh urged the government to provide free of cost medical treatment to the injured persons and ex-gratia to the families of deceased.
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