Seven local picnickers were killed after a loader rickshaw carrying them plunged into a deep ravine in the remote Haveli district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), prompting the government to announce two days of mourning in the area, officials said on Friday.
They were returning to Forward Kahuta, the district headquarters, after a sightseeing trip to Hilla’n waterfall when the accident occurred near Mannumor, on the outskirts of Khurshidabad, on Thursday afternoon.
The loader rickshaw, comparatively longer than a normal three-wheeler, reportedly skidded off the road and plunged around 400 feet into a ravine, leaving the vehicle completely wrecked.
Two persons — Mohammad Idrees Gakhar, who was behind the wheel, and Sardar Bilal Iftikhar — died on the spot, while the remaining five sustained critical injuries.
A doctor at the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital in Forward Kahuta, requesting anonymity, confirmed to Dawn that two of the victims brought there were “dead on arrival,” while the others had suffered severe head and spinal injuries.
“If you see the condition of the iron-made rickshaw, which was completely smashed, you can imagine what happened to the human beings travelling in it,” he said.
The doctor said the injured were administered first aid but, due to the unavailability of surgeons and ventilators at the DHQ hospital, they had to be shifted to the army’s Mobile Surgical Team (MST) in nearby Tachhan village.
From there, the injured were moved to the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalakot, headquarters of neighbouring Poonch district, where three of them — Faisal Iqbal Gakhar; Aqib Hidayat Khan; and Umar Iqbal Khan — succumbed to their injuries.
The remaining two injured — Waqar Riaz Khan and Shahzeb Afridi — were shifted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad, where they passed away on Friday morning.
In their initial report, police attributed the accident to “negligence, reckless driving and speeding” on the part of the driver.
However, Hammad Bukhari, a local journalist, termed the conclusion premature, pointing out that there were no eyewitnesses and all seven occupants of the vehicle had died.
At a condolence reference in Kahuta, speakers criticised the district administration over what they described as a delayed rescue response, and paid tributes to the residents of Khurshidabad, including women, for retrieving the injured and transporting the bodies using loader vehicles due to the absence of government ambulances.
They urged Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, who represents Haveli’s sole constituency, to order an inquiry into the alleged administrative negligence.
Lamenting the “poor condition of roads” in the area, they said that since most routes near the Line of Control were strategically important defence roads, they should be upgraded to National Highway Authority standards to help prevent frequent accidents.
Both the federal and AJK governments should take practical measures for improving rescue services, healthcare facilities, traffic management and road infrastructure in Haveli district, they added.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rathore expressed deep sorrow over the loss of lives and announced two-day mourning in the district.
Expressing solidarity with the bereaved families, he said the government stood by them in this difficult time.
He announced Rs one million for the heirs of each victim.
According to his spokesperson, the prime minister had sought a report on the accident and directed the authorities to take strict action against vehicles operating without fitness certificates.
Road accidents are common in AJK’s mountainous areas and are often blamed on negligent driving, poor road conditions and unfit vehicles.
Two days before Eid, two cousins were killed and a third injured when a car plunged into a ravine in the Jhelum Valley district.
Earlier this month, four persons were killed and two others were injured after a passenger vehicle tumbled more than 300 feet before plunging near a fast-flowing stream in Neelum Valley.
Tariq Naqash
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