3 senior officials among 4 killed in Doda mishap

Bhaderwah, November 14

Three senior officials and a driver of the Roads and Buildings Department were killed after their vehicle skidded off road and plunged into a deep gorge in Doda district on Monday. Expressing grief, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Union Minister Jitendra Singh termed the deaths a huge loss.

The accident occurred near Assar on the Batote-Kishtwar national highway at around 10.45 am, SHO Bhuvinder Kotwal said. He said the vehicle rolled down 200 metres into the gorge, resulting in the death of Executive Engineer Rafiq Shah from Poonch, Assistant Executive Engineer Kamal Kishore Sharma from Udhampur and driver Mohd Hafeez of Doda. Superintending Engineer Suresh Kumar was critically injured and succumbed at the Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu. “Kumar was brought to the GMC with critical injuries. He breathed his last at around 7.20 pm,” hospital’s Principal Dr Shashi Sudan Sharma said.

SHO Kotwal said a preliminary investigation suggested that the accident occurred due to low visibility because of foggy conditions and heavy rainfall.