10 Vaishno Devi pilgrims dead, 57 injured as bus falls down from bridge in Jammu; most were from Bihar

JAMMU: Ten Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims, most of them from Bihar, were killed and 57 others injured on Tuesday as their bus skidded off the road and rammed into the railing of a bridge before falling off it, officials said.

The death toll may go up as Government Medical College Hospital Principal Shashi Soodan said two of the injured admitted there are critical.

The officials said the bus, which was on its way to Katra from Amritsar, met with the accident in Jhajjar Kotli area on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. Katra is a base camp for the pilgrims visiting the famous shrine atop the Trikuta hills.

“The accident took place at Jhajjar Kotli bridge. Ten people have died. Rescue operation is almost compete,” Jammu Senior Superintendent of Police Chandan Kohli told PTI. “We are investigating the reasons behind the accident.”

Local residents, CRPF and police personnel rushed to the spot and launched the rescue operation.

“The troops of 137 CRPF battalion carried out the rescue operation to evacuate injured driver and passengers from bus, which turned turtle and fell down from Jhajjar Kotli bridge on highway,” the force said in a tweet.

The fifty-seven injured have been admitted to the GMC hospital in Jammu and two of them are critical. “Two persons were brought dead in the hospital while others have died on the spot,” said Soodan, the principal.

A CRPF officer said 10 bodies have been recovered.

The bus skidded off the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway and rolled down the bridge over a nallah at Jajjar Kotli between 6.30 and 7 am, the officials said.

They said most of the travellers were from Bihar’s Lakhisarai and were on pilgrimage to Mata Vaishno Devi for a religious function of their child. They were members of an extended family.

Ravinder Panday, one of the travellers, said they felt that something hit the bus. “It lost balance and rolled down. The vehicle was on its way from Amritsar to Katra carrying people who were going for pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi,” he said.

The accident site looked horrific with bodies trapped under the mangled remains of the bus.

Describing the accident, a witnesses said the bus was in the left lane, but it crossed over to the right side after the driver lost control, hit the railing of the bridge went down.

The front wheels came off and got stuck in the parapet of the bridge.

“We were going to pay obeisance at the Mata Vaishno Devi temple and perform ‘Mundan’ (rituals related to shaving a baby’s hair first time) We were serval families together,” said Ramesh Kumar, who escaped unhurt.

For the journey to Katra, the vehicle, carrying a registration number of Uttar Pradesh (UP 81 CT 3537), should have taken a left turn nearly two kilometers before the spot of accident, but passengers said the driver seemed to have lost the direction and was probably going to the Udhampur-Srinagar side of the highway.

“Extremely pained by the loss of lives in a tragic bus accident in Jhajjar Kotli, Jammu. My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families & prayers for speedy recovery of the injured. Directed district administration to provide all possible assistance & treatment to the injured,” Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said in a tweet.

Chief Secretary Arun K Mehta, DGP Dilbagh Singh, ADGP (Jammu Zone) Mukesh Singh and other senior officials visited the Jammu GMC Hospital to enquire about the condition of the injured.

The Chief Secretary directed the hospital administration to provide the best treatment to the injured for their early recovery.

On May 21, a 27-year-old woman was killed and 24 people were injured when a Rajasthan-bound bus carrying Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims overturned in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district. (PTI)