One dead, another injured as car comes under rolling boulders on Jammu-Srinagar NH

One person was killed and another injured on Saturday when rolling boulders from a hillock hit a private car along Jammu-Srinagar national highway, police said.

The 270-km highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country, was cleared for Kashmir-bound stranded vehicles in the morning but the traffic witnessed frequent disruptions due to shooting of stones from the hillocks overlooking the arterial road.

A car came under boulders sliding down from a hill near Maroog on the highway in Ramban district, killing Waseem Azad of Srinagar and injuring his cousin Manzoor Azad, a police official said.

The highway was reopened for vehicular traffic on Saturday morning after a day-long closure due to multiple landslides between Ramban and Ramsu, he said.

However, intermittent shooting of stones at several places in the landslide prone areas of Ramban district once again forced suspension of traffic on the highway around 2.30 pm, a traffic department official said.

He said efforts are on to clear the debris and restore traffic on the highway.