Early Times Report
Banihal/Jammu, Sept 2: Eight people, including four policemen, who went missing after their vehicle plunged into the Chenab river along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway remained untraced even as the rescue operation in Jammu and Kashmi's Ramban district entered its third day on Wednesday, officials said.
There was no trace of the submerged vehicle and its occupants despite rescuers comprising police, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel and local volunteers continuing the search operation in the water body, the officials said.
The private passenger vehicle rolled down into the Chenab near Mehar in Ramban district on Monday while coming from Jammu to Banihal. While policeman Mehrajuddin of Srinagar miraculously escaped the accident, eight more travellers are missing.
Family members of some of the accident victims also joined the rescuers and the area of search has been widened up to 25 km down the stream from the scene of the accident, the officials said, adding all efforts to locate the vehicle and the bodies are being made.
They said it is believed that some of the bodies might be trapped inside the vehicle and therefore the district administration has decided to close the gates of the nearby Baglihar dam for an hour to bring down the water level in the river to allow rescuers to find the vehicle.
There are chances that the bodies of the victims are trapped inside the vehicle, the officials said, adding experts with latest equipment have also joined the search operation.
The officials identified the missing policemen as head constable Latief of Anantnag, Constable Aashaq Hussain of Budgam, Constable Altaf Ahad of Baramulla and constable Hafeez Ahmad of Ramban who were posted in different areas of Jammu and were returning home on leave.Others missing are driver Ajay Kumar of Reasi, Sheshan Devi and her son Kuljeet Singh of Ramban and Arun Gupta of Bihar, the officials said.
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