GILGIT — Eleven people were killed when a passenger van plunged into the Yasin River in the Ghizer district of Gilgit-Baltistan on Thursday night, according to police accounts reported by the Associated Press and Dawn.
The van was travelling from Gilgit toward Yasin Valley when the driver lost control near Morkah Bridge and the vehicle went off the mountain road into the river below, police said. Some early reports placed the crash near a different bridge and the accounts have not been fully reconciled.
Police initially said rescue teams had recovered 10 bodies, including two women, and pulled three injured passengers, including a child, from the river to Gupis Civil Hospital. The toll was later updated to 11 dead, including an infant. Reports differ on the final number of injured, with police accounts saying two and AP reporting three, and no settled figure had been published by Friday.
The dead and the injured were all residents of Yasin Valley, according to police. No victims had been publicly named, and police said an investigation was under way to establish why the driver lost control. No cause has been established.
Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Amjad Hussain described the loss of life as deeply distressing and directed the district administration, rescue agencies and health officials to make sure the injured were taken to hospital without delay and that no negligence occurred during the rescue, according to Pakistan Today.
Road crashes on the mountain roads of Gilgit-Baltistan are a recurring toll. The Yasin River runs fast and cold through a steep, narrow valley, and a vehicle that leaves the road beside it has little chance of stopping before the water. Days are short in the mountains in mid-November and the light fades quickly, though police have not linked the time of day or the weather to this crash.
The Ghizer crash came in a grim week on Pakistan’s roads. On November 7, a passenger bus travelling from Hunza to Rawalpindi collided with a trailer near the Havelian interchange on the Hazara Motorway, killing eight people and injuring 30, according to the National Highways and Motorway Police.
Rescue work at the river continued into Friday as officials checked whether anyone who had been aboard the van was still unaccounted for. The investigation’s findings, and the names of the dead, are expected from the district police.
Sources: Associated Press and Dawn reporting on the Ghizer crash.
