9 GREF labourers killed in accident

Our Correspondent

Banihal, February 13

Nine local labourers of the General Reserve Engineering Force of project Beacon died and five were seriously injured when a GREF tipper carrying them plunged into the Bisleri stream at Shalgadi in Banihal this evening.

According to sources, all the victims, engaged with the 52 Road Construction Company of the GREF, were returning to their homes after the maintenance work of the NH-44 at Maggerkot in Ramsu.

Soldiers of a locally stationed Rashtriya Rifles, local police led by SHO, Banihal, Inspector Nazir Ahmed Dar, Indian Red Cross Society volunteers of Ramsu Quick Response Team and villagers shifted the injured to the Sub-District Hospital, Banihal. Some of the injured were later referred to the Sher-E-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura.

The dead were identified as Mushataq Ahmed Khandey, Mohammad Yousuf Rishi, Ashiq Hussain Wani, Nazir Ahmed Bhat, Ghulam Rasool Wani, Ghulam Nabi Wani, Sonaullah Tantray, Shakir Hussain and Mohammad Ramzan.

The injured were identified as Darshan Singh (driver), Abdul Ghani Bhat, Mushtaq Ahmed Ittu, Mohammad Rafiq Hajam and Rafiq Kumar.