SWAT: At least three tourists died and 20 injured after a vehicle carrying tourists fell into a ditch on Kalam Road near Pishmal area of Bahrain Tehsil in Swat district Saturday, rescuers confirmed.
The rescuers and administration informed that 17 other tourists sustained injuries in the accident.
The tourists were traveling back from Kalam and headed towards Mingora during which the accident took place. Rescue teams along with locals and police, recovered the dead bodies and shifted them to Kalam Civil Hospital. The rescue officials and locals also shifted the injured individuals to the hospital for immediate medical assistance.
According to locals, the tourist coaster skidded off the road due to high speed.
The deceased were identified as Waqas Ashraf, son of Mohammad Ashraf; Molvi Atif, son of Mohammad Aslam and Mohammad Abdullah, son of Khalid Mahmood, all residents of Lahore.
The injured tourists were identified as: Abubakkar of Lahore, Mohsin Raza of Faisalabad, Salman of Lahore, Numan Aslam of Lahore, Rana Faraz of Faisalabad, Kahlid of Lahore, Ahmer Faraz of Lahore, Kaleem Bhatti, Rizwan Ali, Waseem Khalid, Sheraz, Ahsan Ilyas, Mohammd Ihsan, Hamid Qureshi, Syed Hassan and Zulqarnian. The officials said that five of them were in critical condition and they were shifted to Saidu Teaching Hospital.
Madyan Circle SDPO Habibullah told this scribe that local police and rescue teams reached the scene of the accident within no time and shifted the bodies and the injured to local hospital.
“The tourists had gone to visit the Kalam valley and were returning home on Saturday when the accident happened in Pishmal area”, he added.
According to the locals, no practical steps have been taken for the re-construction and rehabilitation of Kalam Road affected by the disastrous flood on 26 August 2022. Due to which such traffic accidents have become a daily routine.
