At least eight people, including seven women of the same family, were killed while four others were critically injured on Thursday when a jeep they were travelling in plunged into a ravine in the remote and hilly Haveli district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, an official said.

The passengers, except for the driver, were related to Azad Jammu and Kashmir Minister for Communication and Works Chaudhry Mohammad Aziz. The family members were returning to Kahuta after attending a wedding in Haalan village, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Haveli Kashif Hussain informed Dawn on telephone from the site of the accident.

Haalan is located some 7 kilometres away from Kahuta, the district headquarters of Haveli situated along the line of control between Pakistan and India.

The deputy commissioner said, "The jeep was hardly 500 yards away from main Kahuta when the driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a curve."

"Consequently, the jeep fell more than 500 feet down into a ravine," he added.

Five women died on the spot, while two of the six injured succumbed to their injuries while on their way to the district headquarters (DHQ) hospital in Haveli, Hussain said. The driver was also among the injured who died on the way.

Three of the injured who survived were transferred to Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahayan Hospital Rawalakot in the neighbouring Poonch district while the other woman was retained at DHQ Hospital in Haveli, the DC said.

Activists deplore owners using 'run-down' vehicles

Though the police are yet to ascertain the cause of the accident, locals were outraged at the condition of the vehicles operating in the remote hilly areas of Azad Kashmir.

"It appears from the picture of the wrecked jeep that its tyres had outlived their normal life, causing it to veer off the road," Raja Mansoor, a local, said in a post on a social networking site.

"This is the problem in almost all rural areas of Azad and Kashmir, where outmoded vehicles are being used by their greedy owners as public transport on dangerous hilly roads with impunity, risking the lives of passengers," another local, Khawaja Ghulam Jilani, said.

However, DC Hussain said that since Haveli was a hilly district, only four-wheel drives such as the jeeps could ply on the roads there.

"Around 250 such jeeps ply on different inter-district routes and it’s premature to say that this vehicle was weathered," he said.

Further investigation is underway.