Tragedy atop Babusar claims eight lives

Nine others injured as tourist van plunges into ravine

BALAKOT:

Eight people died and nine others sustained injuries after a tourist van plunged into a ravine at Getti Das, near the scenic Babusar Top on the edge between Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) on Friday, police and Kaghan Development Authority officials (KDA) said.

Moazzam Khan, the regional officer of the KDA, said that a tourist family from Sahiwal, including women and children, was travelling in a Hiace van, when it met an accident and fell off the hilly road and caught fire. Moazzam said that eight people in the car died on the spot.

“A tourist family from Sahiwal was going to G-B. They met with an accident at Getti Das and their vehicle fell into a ditch and caught fire,” he said. “The KDA ambulances and Chilas Rescue 1122 reached the spot and rescued the injured and retrieved the bodies.”

According to the KDA ambulance service and the Chilas Rescue 1122, 10 people were injured in the accident, of whom nine had been shifted to a nearby hospital. They added that seven bodies were shifted to Naran and one to Chilas.

The deceased were identified as Maqsooda Bibi, Hammad, Mohammad Sarfraz, Rida, Saqib, Talha, Waqas and Irfan. They all belonged to the same family, the rescuers said. The injured included Zahid, Abdul Malik, Zeenat Maryam, Ayesha, Atiya, Amina Urooj and others, they added.

Shaukat Riaz, the district coordinator of Diamer Rescue 1122, told reporters that the accident occurred after the Hiace van collided with a car near the Babusar Pass in the Diamer district.

He confirmed that the ill-fated family was travelling to Gilgit.

Chilas Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Wazir Liaqat said the van caught fire after plunging into a ditch.
DSP Liaqat told reporters that the wounded included four women, as many children and a man.