Excelsior Correspondent
POONCH, July 14: Five Shri Amarnath pilgrims were among 10 persons injured in a road accident on Mughal Road between Bafliaz and Dera Ki Gali today.
Reports reaching here said the mishap took place when Shri Amarnath pilgrims were returning via Mughal Road to Jammu in a Tavera vehicle No. JK-21/ 3866. Driver, Vicky Sambyal hailing from Samba was driving it. A Tempo Traveller No. JK02AS/3447 coming from Rajouri side met head on collision at around 10.30 am, with the Tavera vehicle at a sharp curve.
The police party from Baliaz (Surankote) rushed to the spot and shifted the injured to Surankote hospital and the pilgrims hailing from Gorakhpur (UP) were referred to Govt Medical College Hospital, Jammu in an ambulance. Driver Vicky Sambyal was also injured and hospitalized. The pilgrims hurt in mishap are identified as Pardeep Kumar, Sunita Gupta, Pankaj Kumar, Varinder Gupta, Shiv Kumar- all from Gorakhpur and Vicky (dvr) from Samba.
Five injured persons travelling in other vehicle were identified as Roshan Bi and Samina Kouser from Gambhir Muglan, Mohd Javed from Fatehpur and Mirbaz from Plangarh in district Rajouri. The police has taken cognizance of the matter. All the injured persons were said to be out of danger.
Official sources said that nearly 71 Amarnath Yatra vehicles arrived Rajouri via Mughal Road on Monday but like old Jammu- Udhampur-Ramban-Banihal route, no adequate security arrangements are there on Mughal Road besides any medical/ Langar facilities for the pilgrims. The route is more risk prone but the State police chief and IGP Jammu are perhaps ignorant about this fact.
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