Pulwama: Four people were killed and 28 others injured on Saturday when the bus in which they were travelling turned turtle as the driver lost control of the vehicle on Jammu -Srinagar national highway near Awantipora in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Saturday.
Talking to media in Awantipora, Deputy Commissioner Pulwama, Baseerul Haq Chaudhry, said that a passenger bus carrying around 36 labourers from Jammu towards Srinagar met with an accident on the national highway near Awantipora at around 7:10 am in which four persons died and many others were injured.
He said that the injured were evacuated to different hospitals for treatment.
Officials have identified the four dead passengers as Nasrudin Ansari, Raj Karan Das, Saleem Ali and Kaiser Alam from three different districts of Bihar state.
The Deputy commissioner further said that of the injured 10 have been referred to Government Hospital for Bone and Joint surgery Barzulla, two to Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, 11 to Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital Karan Nagar and five injured have been discharged after treatment from Sub District Hospital Pampore.
He added that autopsy of the dead bodies were completed.
” The bodies will be sent to their heirs by the administration,” he said.
Meanwhile, following the directions of Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha, the Deputy Commissioner (DC) Pulwama, Baseer Ul Haq today announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs one lakh each for the Next of Kin (NOK) of deceased in the road accident that took place in Awantipora.
He also announced relief of 25,000 for critically injured persons and 10,000 for minor injuries.
He later visited SMHS and Bone & Joint Hospital to inquire about the health of the persons who were injured in the bus accident in Awantipora.
DC ensured that best possible health care is being extended to the injured by the doctors and paramedical staff of different hospitals in Pulwama and Srinagar.
The Deputy commissioner, Pulwama also appealed passenger drivers to drive their vehicles with caution and avoid rash driving. He said that uncontrollable speed caused the bus accident in which precious lives were lost.
SP Traffic Rural Kashmir, Ravinder Paul Singh, said that apparent cause of the accident seems to be rash and negligent driving.
“ The driver of the bus is absconding,” he said, adding that they will be taking stringent action in coming days as per the motor vehicles act to deal with rash driving.
A First information Report (FIR ) under number 38/2023 has been registered at police station Awantipora in this incident.
