GUJAR KHAN, March 13: Seven people were killed and eight others injured in a traffic accident on Mandra-Chakwal road early on Tuesday morning.

Reports said a Rawalpindi-bound wagon (RLC-3274) coming from Chakwal rammed into a stationary oil tanker of NLC (880-928) before Sukhu Mor stop, about 26 km off here, due to speeding.

The oil tanker had been parked on the road for the last a couple of days due to some mechanical fault.

The bodies of all the seven victims who died on the spot and the injured persons were taken to the rural health centre Mandra. The injured were later shifted to different hospitals in the Rawalpindi city.

The deceased were identified as Muhammad Taj, a resident of Chakwal; Mudassir Ali, Dhudial; policeman Shafqat Azad, Jatli; Tanveer Akhtar, Jatli; Abdul Ghafoor, Koont village, Gujar Khan; Abdul Rehman, Tatral village, Chakwal, and Zaheer Hussain, Dhudial.

The injured were Zafar Iqbal, Chakwal; Shahzad Hussain, Jatli; Zahid Iqbal, Gujar Khan; Riaz, Taven, Gujar Khan; Asim Jawaid, Raman; Ghulam Ahmed, Chakwal; Abdul Hameed, Jatli, and Aftab Hussain, Jatli.

It may be recalled that two months back five persons were killed in a road accident on Sukhu road near the scene of the Tuesday accident. According to the local people, officials of the traffic police were rarely seen checking vehicles for speeding, overloading and other violations. “The policemen are seen picketing the Mandra- Chakwal road during the first week of every month to collect monthly from the drivers,” they alleged.

They regretted that the oil tanker had remained wrongly parked at the spot for two days and neither the traffic police nor the NLC authorities bothered to move it off the road. However, after the accident, the vehicle was shifted to the NLC camp near Sowan.