MUZAFFARABAD: Three women and a man were killed and three others, including two children, injured after their vehicle plunged into a ravine in Kotli district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Tuesday, police said.

The accident occurred when Nakyal-bound van, bringing members of a family back from Gujranwala, veered off the road near Qamroti, some 20km before its destination, at about 4am and fell hundreds of feet down into a ravine.

The accident reduced the vehicle to wreckage, leaving four of its passengers dead on the spot, said a police official.

He identified the deceased as Gulzar Begum, 82, Zareen Akhtar, 52, Haji Mohammad Asghar, 65, and his 30-year-old daughter Yasmin Akhtar. Their funerals were held in their native Seri Topa village in the afternoon, the official said.

He said the injured, who included driver Imran and a boy and a girl, both under 13 years, had been admitted in District Headquarters Hospital Kotli.

Expressing grief over the loss of lives, AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider offered condolences to the bereaved family.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2020