10 from Bihar die in Jammu road mishap

Ten pilgrims from Bihar, bound for Vaishno Devi shrine, died and 55 others were injured when the double-decker bus they were travelling in fell into a gorge on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway on Tuesday morning, officials said.

“The injured have been admitted to the Government Medical College (GMC) Hospital in Jammu and two of them are critical,” said GMC principal Shashi Soodan.

“The accident took place at Jhajjar Kotli bridge. Ten people have died. Rescue operation is almost compete,” Jammu senior superintendent of police Chandan Kohli said.

Most of the travellers were from Lakhisarai and were members of an extended family. They were on pilgrimage to Mata Vaishno Devi for a religious function (mundan) of a child in the family.

According to people known to the victims, they were going for the mundan ceremony for the two-year-old daughter of one Mukesh Sharma. They had left Lakhisarai on May 24 and first went to Amritsar, where Mukesh’s father stays.

Mukesh’s neighbour Manjit Kumar told HT that the child whose mundan Ceremony was scheduled also died in the accident. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Mukesh Sharma himself has survived the accident or not.

Ravinder Panday, one of the travellers, said they felt something hit the bus. “It lost balance and rolled down,” he said.

The accident site looked horrific with bodies trapped under the mangled remains of the bus.

Describing the accident, a witness said the bus was in the left lane, but it had crossed over to the right side after the driver lost control, hit the railing of the bridge and went down.

The front wheels came off and got stuck in the parapet of the bridge.

For the journey to Katra, the vehicle, carrying a registration number of Uttar Pradesh (UP 81 CT 3537), should have taken a left turn nearly two kilometers before the spot of accident, but passengers said the driver seemed to have lost the direction and was probably going to the Udhampur-Srinagar side of the highway.

Meanwhile, Bihar Police said people seeking assistance could call on its police control room number (0612-2294319) and number of Kashmir Police (0191-2542000/2542001).

Offering her condolences, President Droupadi Murmu said the death of pilgrims in the bus accident was extremely unfortunate.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar announced an ex gratia of ₹2 lakh to the next kin of each of those who were killed in the accident. Kumar said he has instructed Bihar’s resident commissioner in New Delhi to get in touch with the Jammu and Kashmir government to provide help to the victims.