Nine killed as pick-up falls off mountain

BATTAGRAM:

At least nine people — among them three women — were killed and four others wounded when a pick-up they were travelling in swerved off the road and plunged into a ravine in the mountainous Allai tehsil of Battagram district Saturday morning.

According to police, the pick-up carrying 12 passengers was en route to Banna town from Kandao village when it reached near Bojri village the driver lost control of the steering and the vehicle fell hundreds of feet deep in the ravine. Four passengers were dead by the time volunteers from a nearby village managed to reach the wreckage.

The villagers retrieved the bodies and the survivors after an effort of over an hour and shifted them to Bana hospital, where another three succumbed to their injuries.

Rest of the injured were referred to the Ayub Medical Complex in Abbottabad for treatment of their critical wounds. Police said that out of the six victims brought to Abbottabad, two died during treatment, while four are still in a critical condition. The deceased were identified as Umaira Bibi, Taj Pari, Bakhtrana, Samandar Gul, Said Muhammad, Omar Siddique, Habibur Rehman, Ibad and Wazir.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2015.