4 dead in Kishtwar accident, 2 missing: Police

Ramban, Jan 5: Four persons died while two persons went missing after a vehicle in which they were travelling on a link road in Sub Division Paddar in Kishtwar district of Chenab Valley slipped into a deep gorge.

Police said that the vehicle (JK17-A 8709) on its way to Massu from Gulabgarh skidded off the road and fell into a gorge in the Sanyass area on the Gulabgarh-Paddar link road in Kishtwar district resulting in the death of four persons while two persons including the driver are missing after the accident.

They said that the accident had occurred during the night hours.

On Sunday morning, a woman passing through the area spotted a mangled vehicle in a several hundred-feet-deep gorge and informed locals who in turn informed the Police on Sunday morning.

They said that on getting information, Police and local volunteers reached the spot, retrieved four bodies from the embankment of a stream, and shifted them to the nearby Atholi Hospital for identification.

Police identified the deceased persons as Mukesh Kumar, 20, son of Man Singh; Raj Kumar, 22, son of Pana Lal; Haqiqat Singh, 28, son of Sewa Ram and Satish Kumar, 26, son of Nath Ram, all residents of Garh, Padder, Kishtwar.

They said that after conducting postmortem and other legal formalities, the bodies of all four were handed over to their legal heirs for last rites.

Leader of Opposition in J&K Assembly and MLA Paddar Nagseni, Sunil Sharma, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Kishtwar Rajesh Shavan, and Sub District Magistrate (SDM) Paddar, Amit Bhagat also visited the accident spot.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh, who is also a Member Parliament of the area, asked the district administration of Kishtwar to provide every possible help to the victim families.

Meanwhile, Police are investigating the whereabouts of the two missing persons including the driver and owner of the vehicle.