MANSEHRA – Eight members of a family, including four children, lost their lives on Thursday when their vehicle plunged into a ravine in the Matta Banda area of Lower Kohistan.
The family was traveling from Gilgit-Baltistan to Punjab when the driver reportedly lost control while navigating a sharp turn on the Karakoram Highway, causing the car to veer off the road and fall into a deep gorge.
Rescue 1122 teams, along with local police and volunteers, reached the remote accident site after an hour-long effort. The deceased were transported to the District Headquarters Hospital in Pattan for medico-legal procedures.
“All eight bodies have been shifted to a nearby facility and will be sent to Rawalpindi,” said District Police Officer Lower Kohistan, Taimur Khan. He noted that the crash occurred on a particularly dangerous stretch of highway adjacent to the Indus River.
The victims were identified as Asif Iqbal of Rawalpindi, his wife Memona Iqbal, their four children, and two relatives, Aisha Siddique and Bushra Waseem.
DPO Khan praised the professionalism of the rescue teams and reiterated warnings to drivers to exercise caution on the mountainous Karakoram Highway.
Rescue 1122 official Malik Sharif highlighted the high fatal accident rate in both Upper and Lower Kohistan districts, attributing it in part to unfamiliarity among out-of-town drivers with the region’s treacherous terrain.
