AMARNATH YATRA: BUS FALLS INTO NULLAH, 16 DEAD
JAMMU: At least 16 Amarnath pilgrims were killed and about 30 injured when a bus skidded off the Jammu-Srinagar national highway and rolled down into a deep nullah in the Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, officials said. The bus carrying pilgrims skidded off the road, overturned and rolled down into the nullah at Nachlana belt. “16 people are now confirmed dead, 19 with serious injuries,” police said. PM Narendra Modi expressed pain at tragedy.
In a major tragedy, 16 Amarnath pilgrims died while 29 others were injured, when the bus in which they were travelling fell into a gorge at Nachlana few kilometers short of Banihal town in Ramban district around 150 kilometers from Jammu on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway on Sunday afternoon.
Deputy Inspector General(DIG) Doda, Ramban range Basant Rath told HT, “At 2.15 PM a Sate Road Transport Corporation(SRTC) carrying around 50 Amaranth pilgrims bound for the Baltal base camp fell into a deep gorge. The mishap took place at near Army camp at Nachlana in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir.
As per sources, the accident occurred when the driver while reversing the bus, lost its control and it skidded into 50 feet gorge. Soon, after incident relief and rescue operation was launched by locals, police and the army to retrieve the dead bodies and shift the injured to the hospitals.
This ill-fated bus of Amaranth pilgrims was part of 143 vehicle convoy which left the Bagwati Nagar Base Camp, Jammu in the early morning for the twin base camps of Baltal and Pahalgam for their onward journey to hold cave of lord Shiva.
DIG Rath added, “16 pilgrims have lost life, out of 29 injured 11 were shifted via road to Srinagar, while 18 of other injured were to Government Medical College Hospital, Jammu”.
“The bus included pilgrims from Bihar, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Haridwar and Jammu”, he said.
Meanwhile all the 18 critically injured were admitted in GMCH, Jammu in the evening.
Few of the deceased were identified as Pawan Kumar resident of Chodrana Bihar, Rohi resident of Patna Bihar, Sagar Kumar resident of Patna Bihar, Ram Karan Sharma resident of Konata Jaipur Rajasthan, Subinder Singh resident of Bero Bin Rajasthan and Rajinder Yadav.
Meanwhile Governor NN Vohra along DGP SP Vaid visited the helipad at Banihal to oversee the evacuation of injured and later they also visited the accident site.This second tragic incident involving Amarnath pilgrims, as on July 10, seven pilgrims were killed in a terror attack at Botengo, Anantnag when terrorists fired at bus carrying the pilgrims.