MINGORA/MANSEHRA: At least five people of a family drowned after a jeep fell from Kalam road into the Swat River at Kedam area on Saturday. Also, a woman and her daughter were killed and another 23 people injured when a passenger coach plunged into a ravine in Puttan area of Kohistan.

According to Bahrain police, the family was going to Utror from Mingora to spend Ramazan in the cool weather there that the vehicle fell into the river. “All the five persons belonged to one family, including parents, their two sons and one daughter,” said a police official.

The incident occurred in the afternoon when mostly local residents of Kedam were resting. However, a resident said that they soon reached the site after hearing about the incident.

“When we came out we saw a frame of the front glass, pieces of glass and a number plate (SH-142) of the vehicle. The vehicle had disappeared in the river and many locals were searching for the missing persons,” said Aftab Ali, a resident of Kedam.

Local residents and police have recovered two bodies identified as Bahadar Syed and Umar Syed from the river at Bahrain and Madyan areas, while search for others was underway.

All the accidents, so far, occurred on Kalam road were caused mainly due to the worst condition of the road. The road was badly damaged and washed away at several locations by the 2010 floods.

In another such mishap, a woman and her daughter were killed and another 23 people sustained critical injuries when a coach going to Gilgit-Baltistan plunged into ravine in Puttan area of Kohistan on Saturday, our correspondent in Mansehra adds.

Kohistan deputy commissioner Fazl-i-Khaliq told mediapersons that the coach was on its way to GB from Rawalpindi when the mishap occurred in Puttan at a sharp turn.

The local people and police retrieved the injured and shifted them to nearby hospitals. Mr Khaliq said that according to doctors condition of almost all the injured was out of danger. Puttan police after lodging FIR have started investigation into the incident.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2016