Seven missing after tourist jeep falls into ravine en route to GB’s Fairy Meadows

GILGIT: Seven people went missing after a tourist jeep on its way to Fairy Meadows in the Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan fell into a ravine and was swept away in Tattu Nullah on Monday. According to the spokesperson for the GB police, the accident occurred at around 3pm on Tattu Raikot Road. According to initial reports, all six tourists in the vehicle, as well as its driver, are still missing. The spokesperson said that two tourists in the jeep were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and four from Punjab. The driver was identified as a resident of Diamer’s Dareel area. The spokesperson added that police and rescue teams were present at the scene and a rescue operation was underway to search for the missing persons. Fatal accidents are common on roads in the mountainous regions of the country due to traffic rule violations, treacherous terrain and poor infrastructure. Last month, a tragic road accident in Neelum Valley claimed the lives of four people, including two women, and left two others injured after a passenger jeep plunged hundreds of feet into a rocky streambed. In April, a jeep carrying five passengers from Barum Kagh Kosht to Booni skidded off a wet, slippery road and plunged into a deep ravine in KP’s Upper Chitral, killing three people and injuring two others. In March, a tourists’ van collided with a truck on the Hazara Motorway, killing one passenger and injuring 13.