Eleven persons, including a baby and seven women, died and four others were injured in a road accident in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday morning.Reports said a passenger cab bus skidded off the road and plunged into a deep gorge on Chanderkoot-Rajgarh link road.An official said five persons died on spot while six others including a child succumbed to their injuries in the hospital. Chief Medical Officer Ramban, Dr S D Khan said ten passengers died in the hospital while a minor child who was being airlifted to Jammu also succumbed. A police officer said that a case has been registered in this regard while investigation taken up. He said prima facie it seems the driver lost control over the vehicle that was going on break-neck.He identified the deceased as Karun Kumar of Kumate Rajgarh, Urmilla Devi of Daswal Rajgarh, 2 years old Pari of Daswal, Romaluddin, Immana Bano, three month old baby all residents of Milden Rajgarh, Arjun Singh of Kumate Rajgarh, Babli Devi of Kumate, Rubeena Begum of Tatarsoo, Muhammad Mubeen of Satra Bhartund and Hasan Bibi of Bagwa Doda.Four persons who are being treated in the hospital are Kishor Kumar, Muhammad Akram, Sanjeev Kumar and Misra Begum.People from various shades of society expressed grief over the loss of life in the accident. Governor, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufi, Omar Abdullah and others grieved over the loss of lives.“Grieved over the death of 11 people killed in a road accident in Ramban, my thoughts and prayers with the bereaved families. Tragic to see so many lives getting lost in road accidents and landslides in Jammu and Kashmir,” tweeted Hurriyat (M) chairman Mohammad Umar Farooq.
Expressing serious concern over an alarming increase in road accidents especially in mountainous regions of the State, senior political leader Syed Altaf Bukhari urged the governor led administration to take immediate measures to prevent such frequent heart wrenching mishaps in the region.He also demanded a tough action against the traffic violators who mostly cause these accidents consuming precious lives almost on daily basis in the state.The former finance minister also referred to a research conducted by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for increasing road accidents in Jammu and Kashmir, saying that the lack of education, enforcement, engineering and emergency services have been found main reasons for the growing accidents in the state.“Despite the set standard rules and instructions for vehicle drivers about how to drive safely in mountainous regions, it has been found that the vehicle drivers are unfortunately not following the standard rules for road safeties,” he remarked.He urged the governor led administration to constitute more special checking squads especially in mountainous regions of the State to stop the increasing road accidents that lead to loss of precious lives off and on. Bukhari also demanded immediate release of ex gratia relief to the bereaved families.The former finance minister extended heartfelt condolences to the families of those who died in the tragic accident and others who sustained injuries in this mishap.“I also pray for the eternal peace to the departed souls and speedy recovery to those who sustained injuries in this tragic road accident,” Bukhari said in his condolence message. (CNS)