MUZAFFARABAD: A young MBBS student and her agriculturist father and a 10th grade student were killed in two separate road accidents near here on Wednesday.

Police sources and witnesses told Dawn that Dr Ashraf Qureshi, a director in the AJK Agriculture Department, was driving to Muzaffarabad along with his 19-year old daughter, Hina Ashraf, 1st year student in the AJK Medical College here, from their Sehra Meel village, some 10 kilometres west of here, early in the morning.

When they were passing through the Lohar Galli landslide area at about 7:20 am, a huge mass of earth suddenly fell from the adjoining fragile mountain and buried the vehicle within moments.

It took the 1122 rescuers around half an hour to reach the area and recover the completely smashed vehicle, with its lifeless inmates, witnesses said.

The incident triggered violent protest from the people of the area who allegedly tried to set ablaze the famous Lohar Galli rest house, being used by the AJK presidents as their residence after the October 2005 earthquake.

However, police personnel were rushed to the scene to thwart the move. Police resorted to firing in the air, used tear gas shells and batons to disperse the crowd which retaliated with stone pelting and, as a result, at least four police personnel and as many demonstrators received bruises and minor wounds.

In another incident at Muzaffarabad-Chakothi road at about 3 pm, Zakir Hussain Kazmi, a 10th grade student was run over by a public transport vehicle after he fell onto the road from its door.