Ramban: A pall of gloom descended on Sangaldan and Gool areas of Ramban district after four members of a family died in an accident near Chenani, Udhampur on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway on Monday.
Locals said that Imam Jamia Masjid Sangaldan Abdul Hameed Sheikh, 32, accompanied by his father Moulana Jamal Din, 65, mother Hajira Begum, 50, and his nephew Tadil Malik, 16, started their journey from Gool, Sangaldan to Udhampur for consulting an eye specialist but all the four died in the accident near Chenani in Udhampur.
A policeman who was part of the rescue operation said that it took more than an hour to retrieve the dead and the injured from the 700-feet deep gorge.
He said two persons who died on spot were shifted to mortuary of CHC Chenani while a woman and a minor boy who sustained critical injuries were rushed to District Hospital Udhampur where both succumbed.
Soon after the news of the accident spread in Sangaldan and Gool areas, the village elders rushed to the residence of deceased Imam, Abdul Hameed for offering condolences.
Markets of Sangaldan also remained closed to mourn the death of the four family members.
Ex-sarpanch Tanveer Ahmad Malik said that people of Sangaldan and Gool areas were in a deep shock.
The last rites of all the four were performed in the evening in which hundreds of people participated.
All the four were buried at their ancestral graveyard in Sangaldan.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ramban, Mussarat Islam also expressed condolences with the bereaved family.