MUZAFFARABAD: Five people were killed and another five were injured after their five-door jeep plunged into a ravine in Haveli district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Thursday, police said.

Mohammad Ashfaq, a police official in Forward Kahuta, district headquarters of Haveli, told that among the injured and deceased were grooms (brothers) who belonged to a Ghazi Tarbela based Kashmiri family. They had solemnised nikah with two sisters in Khawaja Bandi village on Wednesday night.

At about 6:20am on Thursday morning, the victims rode a Land Cruiser to a cemetery in the village to offer Fatiha at the graves of their near and dear ones. However, hardly after five minutes, the vehicle veered off the course and fell more than 600 feet down onto pointed rocks along a ravine.

Those who lost their lives was one of the grooms Mubashir Munir, his father Khawaja Munir Hussain and grandfather Abdul Rehman, (all settled in Ghazi Tarbela) Khawaja Mushtaq from Hattian Bala and Khawaja Javed Yousuf from Muzaffarabad.

Mr Hussain was behind the wheel and police assume that he might have dozed off.

Zahid Munir, the other groom, and four others, identified as Khawaja Suleman, Khawaja Waqas, Khawaja Naveed and Khawaja Usman were injured. The first two were stated to be out of danger but information about the condition of other victims could not be ascertained due to poor telecom network in the area.

Later, they were buried in Khalo village in Ghazi tehsil, family and police sources said.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2021