Five kids among 9 killed in road mishap in Punjab

Gurdaspur, Apr 15 (UNI) Nine people, including five children, were killed when their jeep collided with a truck near Hajipur on the Talwara-Mukerian road in Hoshiarpur district today.

According to police sources here, the mishap occurred while the deceased were on their way to pay obeisance at the Chintpurni shrine in Himachal Pardesh from Gurdaspur. No one in the jeep survived the collision.

The victims included five members of a family, who were identified as Surjit Kumar and his wife Praveen and their children Kajol, Payal and Tarun. The others were identified as Ashok Kumar, the jeep driver, and Rajesh Kumar and two other children--Shivani and Sonu.

The police registered a case against the truck driver who fled from the accident scene after the mishap.

Condoling the tragic loss, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal announced an ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 each to the next of kin of the adults killed in the mishap and Rs 25,000 to the kin of each child.

UNI