19 killed, 14 injured in Upper Kohistan road accident

MANSEHRA: At least 19 people were killed and 14 others were injured when a Rawalpindi-bound bus and a car fell into a ravine after collision in the Shatial area of Upper Kohistan on Tuesday.

“The police and volunteers have shifted the dead and injured to a health facility nearby. Most of the passengers have died in the accident,” District Police Officer, Upper Kohistan, Tahir Iqbal, told reporters. He said that the SHO Shatial Police Station, who rushed to the spot and led the rescue operation, confirmed that 19 passengers had died and 14 others sustained serious injuries in the accident.

Reports from other sources, which couldn’t be confirmed officially, said that as many as 31 passengers were killed.

Police said the Mashabarrom Transport company’s vehicle was carrying 17 passengers from Gilgit to Rawalpindi. It collided head-on with a car in the Shatial depot Chowki area near Dasu, the district headquarters of Upper Kohistan, and both vehicles fell into a ravine.

According to the locals, the rescue operation was continuing at a snail’s pace as there was darkness and the gorge was deep and it was challenging to retrieve the dead and injured.

The list of passengers released by the Upper Kohistan police revealed that as many as 17 passengers had started their journey in the coach from Gilgit. Mohammad Shakeel, the driver of the coach EA-3688, according to locals, couldn’t hold control of the vehicle on the Karakoram Highway and collided head-on with a car carrying five people.