By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Eleven people, including an infant, were killed when a passenger van plunged into a river in Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region on Thursday evening.
The van was travelling from Gilgit to Yasin Valley, in the mountainous Ghizer district, when the driver lost control near Morkah Bridge and the vehicle fell into the Yasin river, local police said. Rescue officials put the time of the crash at about 7.30pm.
Rescue teams first recovered the bodies of 10 passengers, two of them women, and pulled three injured people, among them a child, from the water. Police later said the death toll had risen to 11, with two people injured.
Darkness hampered the search, and a specialist water rescue team was sent from Gilgit to help. Local residents and volunteers joined the effort.
The injured were taken first to Gupis Civil Hospital and then to the district headquarters hospital in Gahkuch. Rescue officials described both as being in a critical condition. The bodies were taken to Civil Hospital Taus.
Police said all of the dead and injured were residents of Yasin Valley. The van is understood to have been heading for Hundur, a village in the upper part of the valley, and police said it left a narrow mountain road. An investigation is under way to establish the cause.
Gilgit-Baltistan’s chief minister, Amjad Hussain, expressed deep grief over the deaths. He directed the district administration, rescue agencies and health officials to make sure the injured were moved at once to nearby hospitals and given the best available care, using all resources at their disposal.
Hussain also instructed officials to ensure there was no negligence in the rescue operation and that the treatment of the injured was closely monitored. He described the loss of life as “deeply distressing”, prayed for the dead, and offered his condolences to bereaved families and his hopes for a swift recovery for the injured.
The crash is the latest in a run of deadly road accidents across Pakistan this week.
On Wednesday, three people were killed and 13 injured when a coach collided with a motorcycle in Dera Ismail Khan, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to Rescue 1122.
Last week, eight people died and 30 were injured when a passenger bus travelling from Gilgit to Islamabad collided with a dumper truck near the Havelian Interchange on the Hazara Motorway. The day before that crash, 11 people were killed and 33 injured when a passenger bus and a truck collided near Pakpattan, in Punjab.
Fatal accidents are common on the region’s steep, narrow roads. In May 2024, at least 20 people were killed and 21 injured when a bus travelling from Rawalpindi to Gilgit-Baltistan plunged into a ravine in Diamer district.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
