1. Home
2. Jammu Kashmir

3 missing Punjab truckers’ bodies found after 9 days

PRINCE JEHANGIR. Dated: 11/15/2018 2:41:09 PM

BANIHAL, Nov 14: Dead bodies of three missing persons from Punjab, who along with their truck got buried under a massive landslide on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway near Battery Cheshma in Ramban district on Novmber 5, recovered after nine days on Wednesday.
As per reports on November 5, an apple laden truck bearing registration number PB06AK 4045 was on its way to Jammu from Kashmir. When the ill fated truck reached near Battery Cheshma on national highway it came under massive landslide. The impact of landslide was so strong that it hit the truck into 600 feet deep gorge. Three persons belonging to Punjab state were aboard at the time of mishap.
On November 6, the teams of SDRF, police, army and local volunteers started rescue operations in the area to locate the dead bodies of the victims. A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had joined the search operation on November 10. It intensified search operations after a family from Punjab approached the authorities in Ramban claiming that three persons aboard a truck, including a man and his son, were missing while coming from Srinagar.
The rescuers, including volunteers from Ramban and Banihal, along with police and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), were searching through the debris, braving the challenging situation, an official said.
After nine days of hard work today, the teams of NDRF, SDRF, police, army and local volunteers traced out the remnants of apple laden truck which stuck in a landslide on November 5 near Battery Cheshma. “The landslide struck under the highway on November 5 and the evidence at the scene suggested that an apple-laden truck, coming from Srinagar to Jammu, got caught in the landslide and rolled down into a 600-feet gorge near the site,” officials told.
The fate of the occupants could not be ascertained even as rescuers reached the bed of the gorge near Bishleri nullah (stream) and recovered some mangled parts of the vehicle.
The army had also used drones soon after the major landslide struck the highway to help police to locate the missing persons. An official told media persons that three dead bodies were recovered under the debris of landslide by the teams of NDRF, army, SDRF, Civil QRT Ramban, Police today.
The dead bodies recovered were identified as driver, Karaj Singh, 26, son of Manjeet Singh resident of Nawapind Milkhiwall Gurdaspur Punjab, conductor Joginder Lal, 45, son of Gurbachan Lal resident of Maliya khrud Gurdaspur Punjab and Kashmiri Lal, 21, son of Joginder Lal resident of Maliya Khrud Gurdaspur Punjab.