Thirteen passengers including 11 pilgrims belonging to the same family died in another road accident, second in last 24 hours, while returning from Machail yatra in Kishtwar district on Tuesday.
According to Kishtwar police, “at about 7.50 a.m one Ecco bearing registration No. 3594/JK17 met with an accident at Noose Kwad Padyarna resulting into death of 13 persons”.
According to eye witness reports the passenger vehicle rolled down in to a deep gorge after veering off the hilly road.
The driver of the ill fated vehicle may have failed to negotiate the sharp bend which resulted in free fall of the vehicle in to a deep gorge.
Due to impact of the accident the passengers were thrown out of the vehicle. Police recovered their scattered dead bodies along the deep slope on the banks of river Chenab.
Families of two brothers and sister were returning from Gulabgarh after performing darshan at the famous shrine of Machail mata in Paddar area of Kishtwar. The deceased persons hailed from Muthi Marmat area of Doda. Son of owner of a passenger vehicle and its driver were among those killed in the accident.
Soon after the police and local authorities came to know about the accident rescue operations were launched by the district police authorities. The rescue workers recovered all the dead bodies of the passengers with great difficulty.
SSP Kishtwar, Rajinder Gupta and senior district officers supervised the rescue operations.
The police teams were also assisted by local residents in shifting the bodies.
The police could not recover the passenger vehicle as the same was washed away in the high speed Chenab river.
local residents in the area alleged the state government and road construction agencies were not paying attention towards improving the road condition in the remote areas of Kishtwar district.
The residents claimed this year Machial yatra attracted huge rush of pilgrims but the state govt agencies have failed to improve the road conditions between Kishtwar and Gulabgarh-base camp of Machail yatra.
They claimed the accidents are taking place frequently due to poor condition of roads and absence of crash barriers,proper lights at sharp bends and vulnerable spots along the zig-zag road. BJP MlA from Kishtwar Sunil Sharma also visited the site of accident and expressed hope that the project executing agencies would expedite construction of most difficult stretch on the hilly road to prevent repetition of such accidents in future.