SRINAGAR: Three tourists were killed and another -a minor- was critically injured when the vehicle they were travelling in skidded off the road and plunged into a deep gorge along Zoji(la), the 3,528 m high pass connecting Kashmir Valley with Ladakh.
The police officials said that the mishap occurred at a place called Panimatha near the Captain Morh and that the vehicle was going towards Kargil from the tourist resort of Sonamarg in the Ganderbal district.
They said that three passengers Champak Das (67), Tandra Das (44) and Monalisa Dass (41)-all residents of Bengaluru- were killed on-the-spot and that the critically injured passenger Aadrita Khan (8) has been admitted to Srinagar’s Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS).
The officials also said that a rescue operation was launched jointly by the J&K police, the Army, NDRF, SDRF, ITBP and CRPF immediately after learning about the mishap. The driver of the vehicle has survived in the accident, police said.
