GILGIT (The Thursday Times) — Eleven people, including an infant and two women, were killed when a passenger van plunged into the Yasin River in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Ghizer district on Thursday evening, the office of the region’s chief minister said.
The van was travelling from Gilgit to the Yasin Valley when the driver lost control near Morkah, police said. Thirteen people, including the driver, were on board, according to local authorities.
Police had earlier said 10 bodies had been recovered and three injured passengers, including a child, had been rescued. A later statement from the Chief Minister Secretariat put the death toll at 11, adding an infant, and said two people had been injured.
The accident happened at about 7.30pm, rescue officials said. Local volunteers rushed to the river and helped pull out the bodies and the injured. The bodies were taken to the civil hospital in Taus, while the injured were first taken to the civil hospital in Gupis and then moved to the District Headquarters Hospital in Gahkuch, rescue officials said. They described the two injured passengers as being in critical condition.
Police said the dead and injured were residents of the Yasin Valley. The cause of the accident was not immediately known, and police said an investigation was under way.
Chief minister orders full treatment
Gilgit-Baltistan’s chief minister, Amjad Hussain, said the loss of life was “deeply distressing” and prayed for the dead and for strength for their families. He told the district administration, rescue agencies, and the health department to use all available resources to treat the injured, and said there must be no negligence in the rescue operation.
Narrow roads cut into the mountainsides above fast-flowing rivers make road travel in Gilgit-Baltistan hazardous, and vehicles that leave the road often fall straight into the water. Last month, five people were killed when a bus carrying Tablighi Ijtema passengers plunged into a drain in Hafizabad.
