MUZAFFARABAD: Six members of a family were killed in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Friday when their car veered off the road and plunged hundreds of feet down to crash onto the right bank of the Neelum River, officials said.

The fatal accident occurred at a sharp bend on the Neelum Valley road near Chilyana village, approximately 50 kilometres northeast of Muzaffarabad, at about 2pm.

Chilyana faces Teetwal on the opposite bank of the Neelum River in Indian-occupied Kashmir, a point that once served as a foot-crossing under the cross-Line of Control (LoC) travel arrangement, before the activity came to a halt in 2019.

Akhtar Ayoub, the district disaster management officer (DDMO) for Neelum Valley, told Dawn that the 1974 model Toyota Corolla car, bearing registration number B-3725, was being driven by an elderly man accompanied by five women from his family.

After negotiating an apparently dangerous curve near Chilyana, the vehicle went out of his control, veered to the right side of the road, and plunged down the slope, he said.

“It rolled down the mountain slope but stopped just short of entering the river; otherwise, it would have been swept away by the violent current,” he added.

Mr Ayoub said that upon receiving the alert, a Rescue 1122 emergency unit was immediately dispatched from the district headquarters in Athmuqam.

Police personnel, army troops, and a large number of local residents also reached the spot and recovered the bodies of the five women and one man within the next one and a half hours.

The bodies were transported by Rescue 1122 to a nearby army-run health facility in Nauseri, where they were identified and handed over to the bereaved family.

According to Mr Ayoub, the deceased hailed from Botha Tanda, a village on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, and were on their way to Jura town in Neelum Valley to visit relatives.

They were identified as Ameer Khan, 65, his wife Gulshan Bibi, 50; their daughters Naima Bibi, 23, and Mishal Bibi, 21; and their close relatives Sundas, 27, wife of Azhar, and Halima Bashir, 27, wife of Tauqeer Ahmed.

Deputy Commissioner Neelum, Nadeem Ahmed Janjua, told Dawn that the man at the wheel was diabetic and may have suffered a sudden drop in blood sugar levels, resulting in hypoglycemia.

Pointing out that the road at the accident site was relatively wide and also had parapet walls on the river side, he said: “It appears the driver lost control of the vehicle after accelerating involuntarily due to the medical episode.”

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2025