MUZAFFARABAD: Seven people, including a father and his two sons, were killed when a passenger jeep plunged down a mountain slope on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad on Sunday, officials said.
The jeep had set off from Nakka Shakkar Pattiyan village for Seri Darra village towards the northeast of Muzaffarabad and had travelled barely three kilometres when the accident occurred around 12pm near Sathra Podemar village, according to police and administration officials.
The driver lost control of the vehicle while passing through a landslide-affected stretch and plunged down the mountain slope, rolling over several times before coming to a halt as a wreck.
According to a police report, the jeep fell approximately 1,000 to 1,500 feet below the road. All seven occupants died at the scene.
“Their bodies were scattered across the accident site,” Muzaffarabad Additional Deputy Commissioner Zeeshan Nisar told Dawn.
He said residents retrieved the bodies, later joined by personnel of Rescue 1122.
The deceased were identified as 40-year-old Abdul Waheed, who was driving the jeep; 30-year-old Muhammad Khalid; 35-year-old Shafaat; 50-year-old Fayyaz Ahmed; and his sons, 27-year-old Ubaid Fayyaz, 17-year-old Azam Fayyaz, and 18-year-old Iftikhar Hussain.
Police said their bodies had been handed over to their relatives for burial.
Road accidents are frequent in the mountainous areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, with dilapidated roads, careless driving and poorly maintained vehicles often cited among contributing factors.
Questions have also been raised about the fitness certification of ageing and locally altered vehicles and the effectiveness of the relevant authorities in enforcing transport safety regulations.
On Saturday, four children from a family were killed and four other people injured when their vehicle plunged into a ravine about 500 metres deep in Neelum Valley. In May, four people, including two women, were killed and two others injured after a passenger jeep plunged hundreds of feet into a rocky streambed in the same area.