Banihal, July 18: A 45-year-old man died while his niece was critically injured after the car they were traveling in collided with a bus and fell down a deep gorge near Maribudhi area 9km from Batote area of Jammu’s Doda district on Sunday, officials said.
Locals told Greater Kashmir that the car bearing registration number JK-02AK/5522 was on its way to Jammu from Doda when it collided with the bus coming from opposite on the 110-km-long Batote-Kishtwar highway direction before it rolled down the deep gorge near river Chenab.
Soon after the news of accident spread, Assar police and Al-Khair volunteers, Assar and volunteers from Batote started a rescue operation.
Sub-inspector Sahil Kumar Sharma at Police Station Assar, Doda told Greater Kashmir that the 45-year-old Jagdish Raj, son of Dittu Ram, a resident of Prem Nagar Doda had died on the spot while his niece, Priya, 23, was rescued in a critical condition from the gorge.
While Priya has been shifted to Emergency Hospital, Batote, Jagdish’s body has been shifted to PHC Assar for legal formalities, Kumar said.
He further informed that the duo was found by the rescuers in the deep gorge atleast 300 feet from the Kishtwar-Batote highway.