Two buried in gravel die of suffocation

ABBOTABAD:

The bodies of a truck driver and his cleaner were found buried beneath gravel in a trailer at a stone crushing site, police told The Express Tribune on Wednesday.

Havelian police said Abdul Basit, a resident of Lari Bodla village, and his cleaner, Muhammad Rafiq, who hailed from Gujrat, had parked their truck near the crushing machine along River Daur in Havelian Sunday afternoon.

Since there was a long queue of trucks and they were at the tail-end, the driver and cleaner went to sleep in the back. In the meantime, a shovel operator, who loaded the crush on a daily basis, unwittingly filled their truck and buried both men under a pile of gravel.

On Tuesday afternoon, the owner of the crushing site noticed the truck had been parked on the premises for three days. He tried to find the driver so that he could remove the vehicle from the site. However, there was no one in sight.

According to locals, both the driver and cleaner were last seen sleeping in the truck.

When the vehicle was offloaded, Basit and Rafiq’s bodies were found. The remains were subsequently taken to a health centre in Havelian.

Doctors confirmed the victims died of suffocation. Police registered a case against the shovel operator.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2015.