Srinagar, June 28: A traders’ body in Surankote town of Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday hoisted black flags to protest the death of 11 local students in a tragic road accident on Mughal Road yesterday.
Led by traders’ body chairman Khush Dev Verma, the protesters hoisted black flags to mourn the deaths of 11 students of a local computer institute in a mishap near Peer Ki Gali on the historic road that connects Poonch with Shopian district in south Kashmir.
Verma said that the road has turned into a death trap for the commuters and called on the authorities to make it safer.
11 students were killed and seven others injured when a Tempo they were travelling on crashed after plummeting around 500 feet down a gorge along the mountainous Mughal road in Shopian district Thursday afternoon.
The students of Kashish Computer Institute, a private centre, according to an official were on an excursion to Dobijan Shopian from Surankote area of district Poonch when the accident took place.
A police official said the Tempo carrying 16 students, a teacher and a driver, skidded off the road near Lal Gulam, some 32 kms from Shopian town, and careened down a deep gorge.
Governor Satya Pal Malik while expressing grief over the deaths announced an ex-gratia of Rs five lakh for the next of kin of the dead students.
