MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 13: At least 17 people were killed and 24 others wounded in three road accidents in different parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, police and witnesses said.

The first accident occurred near Sihota village at the junction of the southern districts of Bagh and Poonch at about 11:45am when a Rawalpindi-bound passenger wagon with 20 people on board plunged into a ravine while negotiating a sharp curve.

Police Superintendent Zahoor Gillani told Dawn that eleven passengers died in the accident and the injured were taken to different nearby hospitals.

The deceased were identified as Ashfaq Farooq, son of Muhammad Farooq, Khizar Hayat, son of Muhammad Hayat, Saifullah, son of Muhammad Siddique, Mahboob Hussain, son of Shakir Din, Daftar Hussain, Amir Khan, Umar Hayat, son of Muhammad Hayat, Sajid, son of Razzaq, Shakil Aslam son of Mohammad Aslam, Khalid Mahmood, son of Mohammad Khaliq, Mirza Basharat, son of Mohammad Saleem and Tahir, he said, adding those injured were identified as Dalil Shah (driver), Nadir Khan, Shafaat, Ghazanfar, Altaf Hussain, Shoaib, Zeeshan, Umar Gul and Abdur Rahim.

In another accident, a mini-bus veered off the narrow Neelum Valley road near Chalpani village, some 10 kilometres northeast of here, and fell into the Neelum River which was flowing some 200 feet down at that spot.

The passenger vehicle was on its way to Muzaffarabad from the town of Patikka, access to which by road has recently been cleared by the army.

Police said there were 20 people in the vehicle but rescue workers from Jamaat ud Dawa Pakistan said a dozen more passengers were sitting on the roof of the vehicle.

Jamaat ud Dawa spokesman Javedul Hassan said volunteers from his organisation had to use a motorboat to rescue the wounded and fish out the bodies of those who perished.

The boat was already in Patikka to ferry relief goods and quake survivors across the icy river, he said. Eyewitnesses said the rear portion of the bus had been completely sunk into the water.

SP Gillani confirmed the death of four people, including the ill-fated vehicle’s owner and driver, on their way to or in the hospitals of Muzaffarabad.

However, the JDP spokesman said there were seven deaths.

“Three dead bodies were recovered by our volunteers from the river,” he claimed.

Of the 15 injured persons, including two women, ten were brought to the Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) and the remaining five were admitted to the field hospital of Jamaat ud Dawa.

Five victims were shifted from AIMS to the US army’s mobile surgical hospital, commonly known as MASH unit, based in front of the AJK Legislative Assembly building.

Some of the injured were identified as Raja Waheed, Mohammad Tariq, Noor Hussain, Nazir Hussain, Mohammad Shafi, Riffat Bibi, Abdur Raheem, Salma Jan, Sadiq, Rashid and Mir Zaman.

“The driver was running the vehicle wildly,” said passenger Mohammad Hassan, who was returning to his seminary in Karachi.

Elsewhere, police said two more persons identified as Mohammad Asif, son of Mohammad Khaliq, and Younas, son of Mohammad Hussain, were killed when their motorcycle met an accident in the southern Kotli district.