MUZAFFARABAD: Five members of a family and their driver were killed and one minor girl was injured after the vehicle they were on board fell hundreds of feet down the road in Kotli district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Sunday, an official said.

The victims were travelling from subdivision Nakyal to Kotli city in a private car which met with the accident near a place known as Ahlaan for reasons yet to be ascertained, deputy commissioner Kotli, Amjad Ali Khan, told Dawn by telephone.

The accident reduced the vehicle to a completely smashed wreckage and left six of the seven people on board, including the driver and two minors, dead on the spot, he said.

He identified the deceased as Haji Manzoor, 55, his spouse Shahnaz Bibi, 50, daughter Rabia Manzoor, 30, grandchildren Tania Sajid, 4, Subhan Sajid,2, and driver Abid Hameed Bhatti, 40.

The only survivor was six-year-old Aniya Sajid who has been hospitalised in the district headquarters hospital Kotli, the DC said, adding she was out of danger.

Mr Khan said he had attended the funerals of the deceased and conveyed the condolences of Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider to the bereaved family.

Earlier, PM Haider took to Twitter to express his grief and sorrow over the loss of six lives in a road accident in Kotli and added that he had directed the DC Kotli to attend the funeral and burial of the deceased (on his behalf).

“My sympathies to the bereaved family. May Allah rest their souls in peace,” Mr Haider wrote.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2021