MUZAFFARABAD/QUETTA: Four members of a family, including a woman and her son, were killed and a fifth member was injured after a car they were travelling in fell hundreds of feet down the Neelum valley road of Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s capital in the dead of night, just hours before four lives were lost in a head-on collision between a wagon and a mini-truck on the Quetta-Taftan National Highway.

Amid heavy rain in Muzaffarabad, the car with five persons on board, including the driver, was on its way to Sarli Sacha village when it veered to the left while negotiating a curve and nosedived into Neelum River flowing some 2500 feet down the road, said ASI Abdul Khaliq, official in charge of police post in Naseerabad subdivision, while speaking to Dawn.

He added that before the vehicle plunged into the river and was swept away, all the five persons were tossed onto the steep rocky riverbank. Police and Rescue 1122 came to know about the accident after some residents spotted the bodies lying on the rock-strewn riverbank from the opposite side. Rescuers managed to reach the spot from the less steep right side of the river and found one of them alive, with multiple fractures.

The deceased were identified as Mohammad Arif, son of Rehmatullah, his mother Husan Jan and two cousins Zameer, son of Deen Muhammad (driver), and Adil, son of Aslam, while the injured woman was identified as Shakila, sister-in-law of Mr Arif.

They were returning to their Sarli Sacha village from CMH where she received some medical treatment, said ASI Khaliq, adding that the injured woman was out of danger.

Locals claimed the dangerous spot from where the car fell down had seen many accidents in the past as well, due to the absence of road safety measures.

In Balochistan’s Noshki area, a fierce fire engulfed a wagon and a mini-truck, carrying smuggled petrol, after the accident.

Levies officials said the incident took place in the Jorkin area of Ahmed-wall. Soon after the collision, the drums filled with petrol loaded on both vehicles caught fire.

“Four people, including drivers of the both vehicles, could not get achance to save their lives and were completely gutted in the huge fire,” a senior levies official told Dawn.

Levies officials rushed to the site soon after receiving information about the incident and shifted the bodies, which were completely burnt and were beyond recognition, to the Noshki district hospital. Later, the families of the deceased were able to confirm the identities of the charred remains as Haji Mohammad Hanif Badini and Zahoor Ahmed, both residents of Noshki, alongside Kabir Ahmed and Malokan, who hailed from Mastung.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2023