Two city youth killed in Kashmir road mishap

The nine friends from Beliaghata left home for a tour to Punjab, Kashmir and Vaishno Devi.

The relatives of the victims said that they first went to Punjab from Delhi. After visiting various places in Punjab they went to Kashmir and after completing their scheduled tour in Kashmir they went ahead towards Baisnodevi.

The accident took place on May 4 when they were returning from Vaishno Devi. The driver of their speeding car had failed to control the vehicle while overtaking another car and fell into the gorge somewhere in the route between Pahelgam and Katra.

The disaster management group there had rescued seven youth and two – Sanjay Pal and Sayanta Biswas – had died on spot.

The driver of the car is still missing. The car was completely damaged.

The seven injured youth were taken to hospital there and condition of two youth Soumen Roy and Barun Dey was stated to be critical.

The local administration there had contacted West Bengal government officials and arrangements were made to bring back the tourists.

All seven returned to the city this afternoon in a flight. Soumen and Barun were admitted to a private hospital in the city.

The bodies of the deceased will be brought to the city on Saturday.

After returning to the city one of the survivors said that it was a nightmare. “The roads were narrow there and we had been constantly asking the driver not to drive the car at a high speed. But he didn’t pay heed to our requests and continued driving at a high speed claiming himself to be an expert in driving on such roads with an experience of 10 years,” the survivor said adding still he cannot believe that they have lost two of their friends.

The friends were scheduled to return on May 8 if everything would have gone well. But now they are too traumatised to lead a normal life. A pall of gloom descended in the Rammohan Mallick Gardens Lane with the news of the two youth.