Four local tourists die in Shangla road accident

A Swat-bound car plunged into a ravine in the Matta Aghwan area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district resulting in the death of four local tourists, officials said on Saturday.

According to Rescue 1122 spokesperson Rasool Khan Sharif, the tourists were travelling to Swat from Bisham through the Bisham-Swat road and met with the accident in the Matta Aghwan area.

He said that four tourists died on the spot and one person was injured in the accident.

The spokesperson said that their team reached the spot soon after receiving an emergency call and retrieved the dead bodies and the injured shifting them to the Alpuri district headquarters hospital.

Alpuri Station House Officer Mohammad Arif Khan confirmed the details of the accident.

The deceased were identified as Hassan Khan, Jawad Khan, Mohammad Umair and Hamad Khan, he said. He added that the person injured in the mishap was identified as Dilawar Khan.

Police said all victims belonged to the Nawab Pur area of Multan.

The SHO further said that they were making arrangements to dispatch the bodies to their native towns, while the injured had been shifted to a hospital in Swat for further treatment.

He said the cause of the accident could not immediately be ascertained, but the vehicle had been recovered by the Rescue 1122 team.

Fatal accidents are common on roads in the mountainous regions of the country due to traffic rule violations, treacherous terrain and poor infrastructure.

At least five members of a family were killed and three others were critically injured last week when a jeep [plunged][1] into a ravine in the Kotkay area of Shangla amid slippery conditions and heavy rain.

On Sunday, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Amir Muqam [pledged][2] to reconstruct roads in Shangla in the coming months saying that the district consisted of hard terrains with roads which were not in a good condition.