Seven Killed in Muzaffarabad Jeep Plunge on Sunday
Seven people, including a father and his two sons, were killed on Sunday when a passenger jeep plunged down a mountain slope on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, officials said.
The jeep had set off from Nakka Shakkar Pattiyan village and was heading for Seri Darra village, northeast of Muzaffarabad, when the accident happened. It had travelled barely three kilometres before the driver lost control on a landslide-affected stretch of road near Sathra Podemar village at around noon.
The vehicle rolled over several times as it fell down the slope before coming to a halt as a wreck. According to a police report, it fell between 1,000 and 1,500 feet below the road. All seven occupants died at the scene.
“Their bodies were scattered across the accident site,” Muzaffarabad Additional Deputy Commissioner Zeeshan Nisar told Dawn. He said residents retrieved the bodies first, and personnel of Rescue 1122 later joined the effort.
Victims identified
Police identified the dead as 40-year-old Abdul Waheed, who was driving the jeep; 30-year-old Muhammad Khalid; 35-year-old Shafaat; 50-year-old Fayyaz Ahmed; and his sons, 27-year-old Ubaid Fayyaz, 17-year-old Azam Fayyaz, and 18-year-old Iftikhar Hussain.
Their bodies were handed over to their relatives for burial, police said.
The loss of a father and two sons from one family in a single crash underlines how heavily such accidents fall on small mountain communities, where a jeep on a village road often carries neighbours and relatives travelling together.
A recurring danger on AJK roads
Road accidents are frequent in the mountainous areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Dilapidated roads, careless driving and poorly maintained vehicles are often cited among the contributing factors.
Questions have also been raised about the fitness certification of ageing and locally altered vehicles, and about how effectively the relevant authorities enforce transport safety regulations.
The Muzaffarabad crash is the second deadly vehicle plunge in Azad Kashmir in two days. On Saturday, four children from one family were killed and four other people were injured when their vehicle plunged into a ravine about 500 metres deep in Neelum Valley.
In May, four people, including two women, were killed and two others injured after a passenger jeep plunged hundreds of feet into a rocky streambed in the same region.
Each of these crashes followed the same grim pattern: a vehicle on a narrow mountain road, a loss of control, and a fall of hundreds of feet with little chance of survival for those inside.
What happens next
Rescue 1122 and local police completed the recovery of the bodies on Sunday, and no further casualties were reported from the site. The deaths add to a toll that has made road safety a standing concern for residents of Azad Kashmir’s hill districts, where landslides and damaged stretches of road are common, particularly after rain.
For readers in Azad Kashmir, the crash is a reminder of the risks on village routes that link scattered settlements to Muzaffarabad city. Feature Pakistan has previously reported on the region, including a woman’s death in a Jhelum River surge in Azad Kashmir, Azad Kashmir’s prime minister election, the Azad Kashmir council elections and the wider Azad Kashmir election, and will continue to follow official word on any inquiry into Sunday’s crash.
Police have not yet said whether the jeep’s fitness or the condition of the landslide-affected stretch will form part of a formal inquiry. For the families in Nakka Shakkar Pattiyan and Seri Darra, the immediate concern is burial and mourning after a journey of three kilometres ended in seven deaths.
*Sources: Dawn (Muzaffarabad), police and administration officials quoted by Dawn.*
